Holy crap! Activision swoop to tie down Bungie to 10-year contract...

[Jason]

Yeah, that's what I thought, too. Activision and Bungie have today announced that the two have entered into a ten-year partnership, giving Activision exclusive rights to distribute Bungie games worldwide. Bungie will still remain an independent company.

I have to say, I really didn't see that one coming. I'm not sure anyone did. What are your thoughts on this one? Who's getting the better end of the deal here?

source (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=244762)

[Steph]

I have no idea what's going through Bungie's heads at the moment but I wouldn't think they'd be so blind as to sign with them if it didn't profit.

...

Is this Activision making up for the loss of IW?

WTF are Bungie thinking?

To be honest, I don't have enough knowledge of it all to form much of an opinion ...

[Konrad]

"I'd be concerned if I was interested in any of the games the single game Bungie makes."

Though it does seem funny that they join in for such a ridiculously long time after the recent controversy.

[MyNameDidntFit]

Halo series is on what's looking more and more like a perpetual downward slope.
Activision is on what looks like a perpetual downward slope.

They're made for each other.

[Jason]

I think Bungie have got a much better deal of this. As MNDF pointed out, they're on what certainly *looks* like a downward slope. The Halo games are still good, but not as good as they could/should have been. Apart from Halo, they're an entirely unknown quantity, and I can't see the business sense in tying down a relatively unproven developer (they have one IP that we know about - granted, a very successful one, but it's still a very narrow spectrum) to such a huge long-term deal - let's be honest, ten years is going to see the end of the current generation of consoles, the entire next generation, and probably the first year or two of the next generation after that... and based on what? Halo?

Yes, Halo was good, but that good?


Personally, I think it's a gamble by Activision. They're gambling that whatever Bungie do next will be as huge as Halo, and therefore make them a huge wad of cash rather than it being a moderate success or complete failure, and costing them a big pile.