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: gaming experience
According to GfK Chart Track data, the Nintendo Wii has sold 6 million units in the UK, the fastest console to hit the milestone.
The console launched in December 2006 and reached the 6 million plateau on November 28th, 2009.
“With its inclusive, family friendly and fun nature, we’re very pleased Wii seems to have captured the imagination of over six million families across the UK and reached such a landmark sales figure in such a short space of time,” added David Yarnton of Nintendo UK.
“We’ll work even harder to ensure that the interest in Wii stretches over months and years, appealing to people of all ages and gaming experience.”
Result for: gaming experience
Toshiba UK announced the new Qosmio X500 intended to be used by gamers. The Qosmio X500 offers high performance processing power, combined with the latest graphics capabilities, to deliver a great mobile gaming experience. It is powered by Intel’s latest Quad Core processors and the latest nVIDIA GeForce graphics, and sports a large 18.4-inch TruBrite Full HD LCD screen with 16:9 aspect ratio at a resolution of 1920×1080.
It includes stereo speakers made by audio specialists Harman Kardon. The Qosmio X500 also features a rewritable Blu-ray drive (BD-RE) and Toshiba’s Resolution+ upscaling technology, enabling the standard definition DVDs and video files to be upconverted to near high definition quality. It also features an HD web camera, allowing users to record HD video and webchat in wide screen 16:9 format.
For quick and convenient logon, the Qosmio X500 comes with a finger print reader and Face Recognition via the embedded HD web cam.
