I would say it depends more on what 343 does with Halo. If Bungie's next IP is successful, Microsoft still makes money from hardware licensing fees, just not as much since they're not publishing it. If 343 doesn't live up to the expectations of Halo players, then the series will falter and the 360's biggest money maker (Halo releases often determine an entire quarter -if not year- for the XBox division) will not make as much money.
The Bungie/Activision deal was in the works for nine months and I have no doubt that Microsoft knew about it. Microsoft created a studio called 343 to take over the Halo brand and hired some of the guys from Bungie to work there. We'll have to wait and see how they do with it, but they have the framework of the franchise and Microsoft's backing. Whatever comes next for Halo might suck, or it might be very good. I've never played Halo, but from what fans say, there is a lot of potential le...
Are we seriously going to argue exclusivity with what amounts to soft-core porn?
That Christie costume is probably the second best made cosplay costume I've ever seen, after an amazing Big Daddy suit (thought it's not something go looking for, either) and it, um, fits well. From what I have seen, it's pretty rare to have both.
I picked this up on PSN when it was $10, and it's a really good little game. It's worth the normal price, but for $5 this becomes almost a must-play title, imho.
I will also say this: Yeah, LOOK at them. They are really good games, but they do not exactly shine in the graphics area. You're right that exclusives are not necessarily better than multi-platform, but exclusives have more opportunity to play to the strengths of the platform, so graphically have some more potential. Gameplay-wise, that is indeed a whole other beast. Gameplay and fun do not depend on hardware.
I liked it so much, I logged in specifically to bubble you up.
We have seen it before. Final Fantasy XIII, MGS:R. Every time a big exclusive from Sony goes multi-plat we hear how "Sony has no exclusives," "There is now NO reason to own PS3." Now the shoe is on the other foot. Fanboys on both sides will flip-flop the argument.
As i recall there were rumors going around back when Bungie broke from MS that they were unhappy with how much MS tried to control. Maybe they just wanted to finish up the projects they had started before moving on to a different partnership.
MS will still get hardware licensing fees from sales of this new IP - I once heard that MS and Sony get $10 for every copy of every game sold for their systems (could be why MS first party games started out $10 cheaper) - and they do still ...
Some people are going to suddenly start hating Bungie and other people will suddenly start liking Bungie.
Good information that's not just a knee-jerk reaction or full of hyperbole. It can clear up a lot of misconceptions about this deal.
Um, yeah. All it is is that Activision has exclusive publishing rights of this one IP for ten years. For all we know there isn't even a requirement on the number of titles, just that anything in this new franchise has to get published by Activision.
Bungie are not stupid. It's not like applying for a job at Walmart. The have a CONTRACT, and if they didn't like the terms of the contract they wouldn't have signed it. They may even still have the right to say "Screw you Ac...
Sony is speculating and trying to capitalize on this by saying "Maybe they game they bring to our platform will be even better than Halo."
I disagree with most of your comment, but that "maybe in 10 years or so" catch made me literally lol.
But all those people are going to Respawn (heh, I love that pun name), so it will be the same key team members over there.
Read again: "Under the terms of the agreement, Activision will have exclusive, worldwide rights to publish and distribute all future Bungie games BASED ON THE NEW INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY [emphasis added] on multiple platforms and devices."
It sounds like Activision only has exclusive publishing rights to Bungie's new IP, whatever that is. Another note: it says NEW intellectual property, which rules out Marathon or Oni as their next game.
"Under the terms of the agreement, Activision will have exclusive, worldwide rights to publish and distribute all future Bungie games BASED ON THE NEW INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY [emphasis added] on multiple platforms and devices."
That might mean that Bungie is still allowed to work on other IP's with other publishers. eg. they COULD still make another Halo game with Microsoft. Or if they aren't happy with Activision, they might have the right to create a new IP and go wit...
Strangely, the only building that took any damage was Microsoft HQ.
More money and/or better terms. It's not all about the money. If Activision allows them more creative freedom than EA would have, then that's a smart choice.
Good point, this IS a bigger deal for Sony fans than Microsoft fans. XBox owners should just look at this as Bungie moving on to a new IP. Just like Jak and Daxter fans had to deal with Naughty Dog moving on to Uncharted and Sly Cooper fans had to deal with Sucker Punch moving on to inFAMOUS. XBox owners still get Halo too, though it will be from a different developer. It's a bigger deal for Sony fans because they now get access to games from the developer of one of the most popular franc...