I don’t know if Halo has run it’s course or not but it’s obvious that 343i hasn’t done it justice and I think that’s the problem with Halo, 343i has been too incompetent with the IP, give the IP to a more talented studio and they would do wonders with such an amazing universe.
Imagine if Sony let Naughty Dog walk away, for free, and they set up a publishing deal with another company and gave MS an exclusivity deal with their next project. Thats what happened with Bungie, and there is no way to defend it.
They didn’t let Bungie go for free, they got to keep Halo and get cash flow from their stake in Bungie
Actually Naughty Dog are getting to the stage where they might consider it. They are big enough to get a Bungie type deal. The only issue I see with them and the rest of Sony studios is their games are one and done.
What happened with Bungie isn’t strange in the business world, its just strange in the gaming world. Management buyouts are common as are the talent leaving to form another company. It’s the only way you can ever be really rich.
My company was formed when a group of scientists broke away from another company to do things differently. The company they broke away from had been formed similarly by mostly the same people and then had been bought by a larger company.
In order for them to pull it off they’d have to have enough of their talent simultaneously threaten to quit to persuade Sony to let them split off. Its unlikely because their studio structure is different than Bungie’s was back then and also half that studio probably hate Neil Druckmann who probably enjoys his standing with Sony and being able to run ND however he sees fit.
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Yeah, breakouts from established businesses are quite common. from what I remember, the leadership at Bungie started negotiations with Microsoft during the development of Halo 3. Marty O’Donnell spoke about it a bit during his Unfiltered episode with Ryan Mcaffery, Also additional details were in Blood, Sweat and Pixels by Jason Schreier.
Considering as well that Twisted Pixel Games broke away in the same fashion, It seems to be the desire from Microsoft to make sure that if things don’t work between the companies, then let them florish under their own control. Even Matt Booty referred to the divestment of twisted pixel during the E3 xbox first party panel, that his plan is that if aquisitions are not working for Microsoft and the studio, he wants and would want to help them divest in a clean away so the studio can continue on.
Bungie today that made Halo and Marathon is a figment of peoples hopes. They believe that they could ride in and fix everything with Halo. That just strikes me as dreams. Bungie have plans for what is next. Jason Jones continues to sit in his own meeting room, prototyping and refining a game idea that will be unleashed when it is ready.
Although, In my own opinion, Bungie would florish under Microsoft today.
Yeah, I don’t see that happening ever although you are dead on with some at the studio being tired of crunching endlessly however people have options with other studies to move to in the area. Hope Naughty Dog has a better development for their next title so they can avoid the crunch.
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Yeah I’m not sure of the ins and outs of the studio, I only mentioned them because they could sell next game based on name alone. You can do it with a few key people.
There’s no way Bungie and Respawn haven’t turned some heads.
MS already owned Halo, so they gained nothing there, and they would have kept 100% of the cash flow from Bungie because they owned 100% of Bungie. It’s not defendable in any way.