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Activision’s Deal with Bungie Unearthed in Court Amid Infinity Ward Lawsuit
As we move closer to May 29, the planned start-date of the trial to decide the lawsuit between Activision and former Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vincent Zampella, details about the publisher’s business dealings are starting to see the light of day. According to an article in the LA Times today, the 2010 contract between Halo developer Bungie and Activision have been unearthed, revealing a deal for four installments of a new sci-fi shooter code-named “Destiny” every two years for eight years total, including four DLC packs every other year.
The contract would provide royalties to Bungie ranging from 20 to 35 percent of “operating income,” which, as the article puts it, is “the amount left over after Activision deducts its costs, including development, production and marketing expenses.” In addition, Bungie will be entitled to $2.5 million in bonuses if the studio hits quality and budget marks between 2010 and 2013, and could get another $2.5 million if it garners a score of 90 or better on GameRankings.com. That aspect of the contract has echoes of Obsidian’s deal with Bethesda over Fallout: New Vegas, in which the developer scored an 84 on Metacritic when their bonus depended on scoring an 85.
The first game in “Destiny” would be Microsoft console exclusive, whether it be for the Xbox 360 or “720,” according to the contract. Sony’s consoles would get ports of the games coming down the line, as would the PC. Even still, that’s quite a coup for Microsoft.
West and Zampella’s attorney, it seems, is using the Bungie deal to highlight inequities for his clients’ own arrangement with Activision on Call of Duty, arguing that by eschewing larger royalties in favor of more creative control, they are “entitled to compensation for the value of that creative authority, which could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars depending on how the royalties are calculated,” says the Times article.
All in all, this is the first anyone’s known about the Activision/Bungie deal, and the details that have come out of this are pretty interesting. All that lawsuit stuff aside, this is basically a contract where Activision says, “Hey, why don’t you go ahead and make us four more new Halo games over the next eight years. Here’s a bunch of money.” I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that Bungie’s working on another sci-fi shooter—go with what you know, after all. But now that it’s been confirmed, I’m curious to see how they change course from Halo and cover unexplored ground…
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Gee thats a lot of content in a year for one studio. No wonder we haven’t heard anything from bungie yet. they must be front loading the production because there is no time to crunch in that schedule.
Bungie has always done sci-fi shooters. I’m not even slightly surprised. Though, I am kind of interested to see if they make something that stands above the crowds, like, say, their last franchise. The name escapes me at the moment… :D
“Bungie has always done sci-fi shooters”? What about the Myth series? That was done by Bungie before they did ANY sci-fi shooters. -_-
1. They made Pathways into Darkness, which was a sci-fi FPS…
2. They also made the Marathon series, which is a science fiction FPS….
3. Of course, all five installments of Halo from Bungie were sci-fi FPS’s….
4. And now Bungie is making yet another franchise as a sci-fi FPS…
5. Oni wasn’t FP, but it was sure as hell a sci-fi shooter…
6. Myth was probably the only non-sci-fi FPS Bungie ever made…
My previous statement still stands.
2 years seems kinda short for Bungie. I wonder if it will still be as polished as their Halo games. IMO all the CoD games needed a little more polishing.
” According to an article in the LA Times today, the 2010 contract between Halo developer Bungie and Activision have been unearthed, revealing a deal for four installments of a new sci-fi shooter code-named “Destiny” every two years for eight years total, including four DLC packs every other year.”
^that alone is the reason the market is dieing, not to mention that I know it won’t be good. This screams activision trademark, is it just me or does it seems like all of the big publishers seem to be doing the same thing, almost like they are all working together.
Bungie.Net is full of crack pot theories about Destiny right now, well I mean, the cracks were right all along. Oh and I don’t think anyone is happy about this contract.
They haven’t always done sci-fi shooters, they did myth a long time ago a well as pathways into darkness. It was sort of a horror shooter. Since they got bought by Microsoft though its all halo.
Of course they would only give them two years, fecking retards. Games need longer periods of time to be better and get the same effect older one’s did. CoD is an example, same shit every year but with a slightly varying title, but because there is only two years at most development time. We won’t get the leaps and bounds in difference between the Halo games if that is how the contract is going to play out.
I’m expecting this to be the new ‘CoD’ since the modern warfare games are over. Destiny will probably come out next year since black ops 2 comes out this year. Then CoD and Destiny will take turns coming out every year.
So, basically what you’re saying is Activision might pace themselves? Pfft, no. They’ll try and make Destiny just like CoD in how many of them are released, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they draft in another studio to be Bungie’s ‘Treyarch’ as it were.
Well, at least they gave us Marathon, Halo and all the other games. I really hope Destiny’s great, and logic dictates that it should be, being made by Bungie but with Activision setting such a ridiculous timeframe, I don’t think that’s going to happen. Unless they’ve been working on this engine for a good few years to make it really great, and then intend to just improve the engine for the new games, but I’m not too sure myself…
Damnit bungie. You told us to trust you…
You brought this on yourself.
Only from the ashes we can be reborn again. Once manufactured, big budgeted games like this start to flop, the era of giant corporations producing shitty games will start to come to an end.
Yep… There goes Bungies qu
My guess is that they’ll do what Ubisoft did with Assassin’s Creed III. Different section of the company working on the sequel while the other games come out. The whole thing is a bit too locked in for my taste, but I’m confident that Bungie will come through
That tumb nail is an insult to Halo….