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: player experience
Over the past years, the Canadian dollar has seen a steady rise in value to the point where it sits today, at almost equal to the United States Dollar. Despite that fact however, Canadians usually get ripped off with new technology especially in the video game industry.
This has been changing recently however, and now video games are launching at equal prices to that of the US, and consoles sell for almost the same price.
One area that has seen no evolution however, is the downloadable content market. Canadian pricing for the PlayStation Store is much higher than US pricing, but Sony says that is changing this week.
On May 1st the SCEA will completely adjust the pricing for downloadable content, making it almost equal to the US market.
“We are continually looking for ways to enhance the player experience on the PlayStation Network, and downloadable content through the PlayStation Store is just one of our areas of focus,” said Grace Chen, Senior Manager for the PlayStation Store. “We anticipate that this price adjustment will meet the expectations of our Canadian consumers and provide them with a better PlayStation Network experience.”
Sony added the adjustments will be executed “in a phased approach prior to the regularly scheduled PlayStation Store update, with prices adjusting during a window of time prior to the scheduled update on May 1st.”
