Comooorrrrr Bungie deja a M$?????

Bungie and MS: What the Hell is Going On?
Random blogger causes massive net meltdown. Microsoft avoids answers.
By Patrick Klepek, 10/01/2007

Earlier today, 8Bit Joystick caused a simultaneous WTF across the Internet when they claimed to have a source with information on the latest rumblings between Bungie Studios and Microsoft. The source -- who doesn't work at Bungie, but "knows" someone that does -- alleges Microsoft has agreed to allow Bungie become an independent studio again. Expectedly, Microsoft would retain the rights to the Halo IP, not unlike what happened with Bizarre Creations and the Project Gotham Racing IP. In that case, however, Microsoft didn't own Bizarre.
The source goes onto claim the split stems from increased friction between the developer and publisher as they both raced to get Halo 3 out the door. While shocking that Microsoft would knowingly release another company producing high-profile first-party games, the reaction by Microsoft and Bungie today leads credence to the idea there may be some truth to what's going on behind the scenes.

Given the source also claimed NDAs expired today, everyone should be ready to talk, right? Well, not so much.

1UP first got in touch with Bungie, who pointed us in the direction of Edelman, Microsoft's (and thus Bungie's, as they are currently a Microsoft-owned studio) PR outlet. We ended up contacting several Microsoft representatives at Edelman for comment, receiving two slightly differing responses.

"To your question, there's been no such announcement. We can't comment further." -- Microsoft representative #1
"There's been no such announcement. We continue to celebrate the tremendous success of the global phenomenon that is Halo 3." -- Microsoft representative #2

Canned PR responses differ company to company. Representative #1's "we can't comment further" is telling, considering the responses share some identical phrasing, making the official PR line within Microsoft "there's been no such announcement." When a PR company expects requests for comment from a number of outlets about the same piece of news, there is usually a canned response -- "there's been no such announcement" is Microsoft's canned response for today. "We can't comment further" suggests there actually is something more they simply can't talk about yet.

Elsewhere is activity on the Bungie.net and NeoGAF forums, popular hangouts for notable Bungie public figures Frank O'Connor and Luke Smith. Both are usually quick on the posting gun -- snarky or otherwise -- yet while both are actively online (as can be evidenced by NeoGAF's "currently active users" section at the bottom of the board), neither are responding to the quickly exploding thread of virtual shock and awe.

Hmm.

If wheels are churning, it would make sense Bungie's keeping their mouths shut until official word hits, supposedly expired NDAs or not. No reason to spoil the current love fest, especially when they're all continuing "to celebrate the tremendous success of the global phenomenon that is Halo 3." Right?

We'll keep digging. Stay tuned.

The value of a software company is A) its people and B) its IP... but you cant own people!
So the people say to microsoft, we are going to leave, and while we wont solicit the rest of the team, we are their leaders and maybe theyll call us for jobs. MS knows from past experience that that will happen.. and bungie employees would like to keep their tech, so they cut a deal -- bungie goes its own way and gets a license to use all the tech it wrote while part of MS, and signs an xbox exclusive deal for a while. That's good business for MS, because the alternative is to lose the team and have them go 4-platform, which they certainly can do profitably with the games they can make.
Even if MS was the best corporate owner ever, the Halo team members have an enormous incentive to quit and start their own company with the amount of money they could make the company worth.
The email is consistent with this -- the IP is held by MS, but the team leaves. This is a common issue with software company acquisitions.


Y este podría ser el nuevo juego de Bungie como así se publicita en una oferta de trabajo de la compañía...

Cita:
Responsibilities:

* Learn our game engine and expand upon its capabilities
* Work closely as part of a team to create games that are technically superior and fun to play
* Produce clean, high quality code that pushes the machine to its limit

Requirements:

* Smart, driven and adaptable
* Passionate about games and game programming
* Excited to tackle new and varied challenges
* High quality standard for personal code
* Basic understanding of algorithms, performance and optimization
* Good working knowledge of C/C++

Plusses:

* Previous console experience
* Professional C/C++ coding experience
* Expertise in a specialist area (such as mathematics, physics, networking, AI or graphics)
* Experience working in a team environment and good communication skills
* History of hobbyist game programming, mod or bot work
* A love of combat on the high seas

By now, you must have heard the rumor of Bungie leaving Microsoft that started at 8Bit Joystick.com. Well, we can't provide further info now (we'd put our sources in trouble) but we're going to tell you that it is more complex than simply Bungie leaving Microsoft or Microsoft letting Bungie go.

There will be an official announcement this week, definitely before October 12th...