Bungie, the developer behind the Halo franchise has announced they have signed an exclusive 10 year pact with Activision that will bring the developer’s “next big action game universe to market.”
For the next decade Activision will have exclusive, worldwide rights to publish and distribute future Bungie games “based on the new intellectual property on multiple platforms and devices.”
Financials of the deal were not disclosed.
Bungie formally had an exclusive partnership with Microsoft, but the two split in 2007.
“We chose to partner with Activision on our next IP because of their global reach, multi-platform experience and marketing expertise,” adds Bungie President Harold Ryan. “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.”
The Halo franchise has so far brought in $1.5 billion in revenue, and Bungie has sold over 25 million units worldwide.
“Bungie is one of the premier studios in our industry and we are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to work with their talented team over the next decade,” says Thomas Tippl, Chief Operating Officer of Activision Blizzard. “Bungie has developed some of the most compelling and successful games, multiplayer experiences and thriving fan communities, and this alliance underscores our long-standing commitment to foster the industry’s best creative talent. Our unprecedented partnership with Bungie will enable us to broaden our pipeline of exciting new games as we continue to strengthen our industry position and pursue long-term growth opportunities.”
Result for: chief operating officer
The “movie social-networking” company Flixster has announced today the purchase of popular movie review site Rotten Tomatoes, expanding its overall presence in the industry.
Rotten Tomatoes was formerly owned by gaming outfit IGN, and IGN will get a minority stake in Flixster as part of the new deal. Other financial details were not released.
The WSJ says the combined entities have 30 million monthly visitors per month combined, and Flixster had already integrated RT ratings into its mobile device apps. Overall, both sites now have a database of 250,000 movies and DVDs, 2.3 billion user reviews, 550,000 critic reviews and tens of thousands of trailers and other videos.
“Rotten Tomatoes has built a fantastically well-known brand that moviegoers trust when making their decisions. Combined with Flixster’s social networking and word-of-mouth, we’re creating the leading movie destination on the Internet,” added Flixster President and Chief Operating Officer Steve Polsky
Result for: chief operating officer
CinemaNow has introduced a new mobile feature for its service that will allow any web-enabled mobile device to download digital movies.
There is a catch however. You cant play the movies on your phone, the service only allows you to download the movies using your phone, to a PC at home, as long as the PC has the CinemaNow Media Manager installed and running. According to the service’s FAQ section, “On CinemaNow Mobile you can browse the same CinemaNow video selection, watch trailers, make purchases and have the video download at any of your PC’s.”
If you don’t really get the point of the service, CinemaNow tries to explain it better:
“Let’s say you’re at the bus station or at a friend’s house, thinking about what to watch tonight when you get back home. Once you bought and sent your video to your home PC via your phone, it will be there for you waiting to be watched when you get back.”
It is an interesting idea if you want to remotely download a film, but those who use CinemaNow know that a streamed movie starts very quickly so this service seems like it will only save a few minutes at best.
More interestingly however, is that CinemaNow’s chief operating officer David Cook says movies that can be played on phones is coming sometime in 2009, with more details to follow.
