That headline caught your eye, didn't it? April Fool's! Oh, wait...
News Blips:
Activision has entered into a 10-year exclusive partnership with Halo developer Bungie. In addition to laying out the publishing terms of a "big action game" on multiple platforms, the deal stipulates that Bungie will continue to fully own their intellectual property. “We chose to partner with Activision on our next IP because of their global reach, multi-platform experience and marketing expertise,” said Harold Ryan, president of Bungie. “From working together over the past nine months on this agreement, it is clear that Activision supports our commitment to giving our fans the best possible gaming experiences.” I wonder where he's been during the past few weeks?
Sony is being sued by a California PS3 owner over its decision to drop secondary operating system support. A firmware update released on April 1 removed the ability to install other operating systems -- such as Linux -- onto the console. The suit contends that "Sony's decision to force users to disable the Other OS function was based on its own interest and was made at the expense of its customers," blaming Sony's continual battle with piracy and hacking as the impetus of the change. Anthony Ventura, the lawsuit's plaintiff, is asking for over $5 million in compensation. Wait -- A. Ventura? Alrighty then! [Kotaku]
Speaking with GamePro, God of War 3 director Stig Asmussen shared the different ideas previous directors had for the story's finale. Series creator David Jaffe envisioned Kratos' total destruction of Greek mythology (with Norse mythology "right around the corner"), whereas God of War 2 director Cory Barlog wanted Kratos to assume a Death-like role, complete with two whirling sickles as blades. And this is why David Jaffe is awesome: Apart from his typically vocal rants, his ideas are completely over the top.
Young kids and early teenagers are increasingly picking up handheld game systems, according to a report by the NPD Group. Sixty-five percent of households that contain a child aged from four to 14 years old own a video game console, of which 44 percent are portable -- an eight percent increase from a previous study in 2005. Only HDTVs and cell phones surpass consoles for intended purchases, with a large chunk (37 percent) of a recent hardware sales figure caused by purchases for kids. Wallet-draining TVs? Cell phones with iron-clad contracts? What happened to buying a simple toy firetruck? [IndustryGamers]
Got any hot news tips? Send 'em over to tips@bitmob.com.
Can't believe Bungie signed with Activsion, anyone else think it will be weird playing a Bungie game on PS3?
So, how long until Activision stabs Bungie in the back? If I led an independent studio I'd stay as far away from Activision as I could.
@Eric I don't think Activision can really stab them in the back. The whole mess with Infinity Ward is over the Call of Duty property. Activision owns Infinity Ward and CoD whereas Bungie is not being bought and they are retaining the rights to their new IP. Maybe there is more to it but it sounds like a distribution and marketing deal. Kind of like with EA Partners where EA has distributed Rock Band and Valve games but don't really have any say on what goes into the game. Maybe Bungie will cover their own development costs which wouldn't allow Activision too much control, would it? There really aren't too many companies other than Activision to go with either if you want your game on multiple platforms and wide distribution. Activision and EA are the biggest. I'd guess Ubisoft would be a distant third.
I wonder what a Non Bungie developed Halo FPS is going to be like. Ensemble Studios did a good job capturing the Halo universe in RTS form and making it feel like a Halo Game. But a Halo FPS is a different beast.
@Rich I think they can still work on Halo for Microsoft if they chose to. I don't know if they are large enough to work on multiple games but the deal with Activision is just to publish games based on the new IP. I wonder if Bungie can strike gold again though. The last non-Halo game they made was Oni nine years ago. Before that it was some Myth games and some Marathon games.
Truly, merger after merger is being announced lately, and after this the Activision Bungie merger is going to take destination, video gaming could be transforming. Bungie is popular for creating the XBox Halo games. This merger with Activision will more than likely open doors for the video game company to spread further than XBox to possibly Playstaion's and PC's. Hopefully this may also strengthen both companies' weak sides; and help them to take a larger share within the industry. That would be amazing, to be able to play some of Bungie's games on my pc, would be an experience in itself!