Bungie, best known for their award-winning Halo franchise shocked the gaming world this past week when they announced an exclusive 10-year contract with Activision. Fresh on the heels of the Infinity Ward scandal, gamers let out a collective gasp when they heard the news. You see, Activision is being sued by former and current employees of Infinity Ward (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2) for failure to pay as much as $625 million dollars in royalties, bonuses and stock options. On March 1, 2010, weeks before the royalties were due, Activision terminated Infinity Ward founders, Jason West and Vince Zampella. The two have founded their own company called Respawn Entertainment and several Infinity Ward employees have since resigned to work there. According to the suit, none of the developers have received the royalties for which they are entitled.

Fans loyal to the Modern Warfare team have scorned the publishing giant and even Double Fine President, Tim Schafer (Brütal Legend, Psychonauts) likened Activision to “a beast.” Bungie President, Harold Ryan isn’t deterred by the legal squabbles involving Modern Warfare 2: “From my point of view, it hasn’t affected us,” he told GamePro, “…We’ve been talking to each other for over nine months, and Bungie’s been in a unique place to have a lot of choice and it always came down to having Activision and Bungie completely aligned for our goals about what we want to do with our creative, and who we want to bring that creative to. That’s been the ultimate driver for us, and it hasn’t been affected at all by what’s been happening with the Infinity Ward guys.”

In fact, Bungie is working on an entirely new project and Ryan hopes the partnership will create a gaming powerhouse. With this deal, Bungie joins the team of Activision and Blizzard to cover a huge span of gamers across all platforms. Until now, Bungie has only been able to publish games through Microsoft consoles; so naturally, Sony is excited to finally get in on the action. "The partnership between Bungie and Activision is a big win for gamers worldwide," a Sony spokesperson told IGN. "Combining Bungie's creativity with the incredible power of PlayStation 3 will add serious muscle to action gaming. We look forward to extending Bungie's ‘next big action game universe' with PS3 users." Hearing this, it’s been asked if Halo will expand to other platforms, but the common consensus is ‘no’. Reach is said to be the final chapter in the Halo universe and remains an Xbox exclusive. Microsoft commented that the partnership between Bungie and Activision will not have any impact on the upcoming release of Halo: Reach this fall.

Will Bungie be taking over Modern Warfare? Harold Ryan says no. In fact, they’re excited to create a brand-new universe and intellectual property together. Until then, fans can jump on the Halo: Reach beta starting May 19^th – your invitation is included with each new copy of Halo 3: ODST.

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terrafovea said:

	I know, right? They need to just come out with a Speed Metal Addition. That'd be just fine.
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August 16, 2010
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JediMasterRick said:

	... Just give me Guitar Hero Iron Maiden. And Megadeth.
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August 01, 2010
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