When you get in bed with Activision, any deal is a bad deal. The contract may be awesome or bad, I have no idea. All I figure is that when you hop into bed with a girl with a well known case of herpies, you won't escape that unscathed.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Activision/Bungie game revealed by court (4 MMO sci-fantasy FPSs, more) [OP Updated]
- Thread starter V_Ben
- Start date
When you get in bed with Activision, any deal is a bad deal. The contract may be awesome or bad, I have no idea. All I figure is that when you hop into bed with a girl with a well known case of herpies, you won't escape that unscathed.
All games do this.
Whether they actually come out is a different story. (ex: Too Human being a trilogy)
If you don't plan for the long term, then you end up with a clusterfuck of shit like Mass Effect 3.
I assume you have examples of actual contracts that show what a first-rate deal would be.
As for Destiny's success being a foregone conclusion, I'm guessing people were singing similar praise for id software back in the late nineties. Or Ion Storm prior to the release of Daikatana. Or Warren Specter after he and Harvey Smith produced the first Deus Ex. Or Rare. Or . . . I could probably fill up a page with "sure things" that turned out to be anything but. I mean, Sony absolutely crushed the console competition again this time around, didn't they?
Creating a reasonably solid product that people enjoy is largely due to talent and hard work. Having it blow up into a massive success is largely due to luck.
One just wishes that instead of planning out one game for the long term...they would develop multiple titles over the long term. milk that cow and all though.
Because other publishers aren't in court where their dealings with another developer isn't being use against them? Also, people knowing about it doesn't change anything about the deal with Bungie. So, they really have no leverage in changing it unless the courts order it (I guess? No reason they would mandate this though...)
Captain Blood
Member
Crazy Crazy stuff. With all the Halo 4 hype going on I have really been excited to see what Bungie has been up to while flying under the radar.
ThisWreckage
Banned
This makes zero sense and the upper management at Bungie have a lot of explaining to do. Third party companies need to learn that timed exclusivity benefits no one and that they're leaving money on the table. Ask EA if they would have had Mass Effect 1 day and date with the 360 version and see what they'd say. No one will buy the PS3 version and even PC sales will be in question.
They left Microsoft because they didn't want to be a sci fi first person shooter factory and they sign a shitty contract with Activision to become a timed exclusive sci fi first person shooter factory.
Not to mention that I don't expect this game to be popular. People will leave it once the new Call of Duty drops. They signed with a company they're going to be directly competing against. That's why Activision has that clause in there.
They left Microsoft because they didn't want to be a sci fi first person shooter factory and they sign a shitty contract with Activision to become a timed exclusive sci fi first person shooter factory.
Not to mention that I don't expect this game to be popular. People will leave it once the new Call of Duty drops. They signed with a company they're going to be directly competing against. That's why Activision has that clause in there.
D
Deleted member 22576
Unconfirmed Member
You're acting like this game is going to be an 8v8 head to head multiplayer game.
ThisWreckage
Banned
I don't believe there is a market for an MMO first person shooter game. If there is, it is a very small one.
D
Deleted member 22576
Unconfirmed Member
I don't think it's going to be an mmo really as we know it either. I don't really know what the hell it's going to be, which seems like a very important fact to consider.
Vinterbird
Member
This. If Bungue actually has the console equivalent of World of Warcraft on their hand, then sure as shit PS3 and PC owners will be excited as shit to join in on a phenomena as that. Envy if it is a year later or something like that, the argument then will be that PS3 and PC owners will get the benefits if having the 360 players being "beta" testers, and those joining in a year later will get a more refined experience.
Assuming Bungie actually delivers the games as promised the only bad things Activision can do to Bungie is drop the contract if the game doesn't sell five million or drop it after the second game. Neither of these will destroy Bungie since (unless they make some truly awful games) they should be able to sign elsewhere. It isn't like Kotick can waltz into the Bungie office and declare they are making a Guitar Hero game and the disappear in a puff of evil smoke.
Unknown One
Member
This is Activision we're talking about. Going from how they treat PS3 COD players, there will be no refined experience. It'll be wait in line Xbox is first for the dlc, you peasant.
For PC it'll either be a shoddy port or no dedicated servers, but since it's an mmo scrap the latter.
GungHo
Single-handedly caused Exxon-Mobil to sue FOX, start World War 3
It puts even more power into the hands of non-(and un-)professional journalists who can score based whatever system they care to use at the time. If you thought the system was corrupt in any way before with all the swag and free games being passed around, what do think monetizing scores will do?
Hell, if I'm a reviewer and I see an Activision game from a major studio come to me, I now know I have up to $2.5m worth of room to squeeze you. Sure, scores may be aggregated, but no one knows who those people really are... it's not like there's some sort of union or code of ethics that keeps them from being a bunch of greedy or spiteful bastards lest they get booted from the industry.
It's even worse if you're an aggeegator with GameRankings or Metacritic... who controls what goes into the aggregate or how non-numerical scores get calculated? It's not like it's Car & Driver or Motortrend where bad reputations kill ad dollars or ethics violations can be addressed with the IMPA or NWU/IFJ.
Why do I have a feeling that if this were to originally land on the ps3 day and date, you would have a different outlook on the game?
I seriously don't get this complex people have with late ports. I purchased Witcher 2 a year later and did not have any kind of issue doing so. It's a great game and will buy any great game the moment it's available. This level of bitterness does the owner no good as all it does is give the publisher/developer reason not to support your platform of choice.
Also, they left MS because they wanted ownership over the games/IPs they create, not to mention the option to move away from Halo. As we see with Halo, just owning the IP can be a powerful thing. Never did they say or even insinuate that they left MS because they didn't want to make sci-fi shooters.
Read the contract and if you have one ounce of common sense, you'll see why it's not so easy just to create a multi-platform game on their schedule.
HigherLevel
Member
I love the "Bungie leaves MS to stop making sci-fi shooters, only to make sci-fi shooters for Activision" comments.
Bungie was restricted with what they could do because they already have established a universe, that's very limiting to creativity after a while. They wanted to work on a completely new universe, which is what Destiny is. People don't think when they post.
Bungie was restricted with what they could do because they already have established a universe, that's very limiting to creativity after a while. They wanted to work on a completely new universe, which is what Destiny is. People don't think when they post.
Sho_Nuff82
Member
I really don't know. Were people surprised that Kamiya, Sakaguchi, Mikami, and the IW founders went on to make games in the same genre as DMC, FF, RE4, and CoD?
All signs point to
A) they wanted a deal worth more money (they got it)
B) they didn't really care about Halo universe anymore (so they're making a new one)
All the speculation about them hating MS, hating sequels, hating fps, was just that, speculation. If they keep up the same quality level as the past decade, they get lots more money and a bigger audience (eventually), it's not really that bizarre.
electricpirate
Member
There wasn't a huge market for FPS on console's when Halo came out either. I mean, a couple of moderate hits and a couple of really big hits in the previous 5 years or so, while the genre was already a mainstay on the PC.
Not saying that Bungie will immediately change the market like they did with Halo, but bungie has never really been a company that says "Hey, everyone else does Y, so we should do that too!"
Skiptastic
Member
If it's a MMO FPS that involves working with human characters against CPU opponents, I'm totally down for that. I've been waiting for a real co-op FPS. One that doesn't involve team deathmatch against other human opponents.
Maybe that already exists and I'm ignorant to it. But I'm also console-centric...
I'm excited also because I love Bungie's Halo games and I'm an ATVI stock holder.
Maybe that already exists and I'm ignorant to it. But I'm also console-centric...
I'm excited also because I love Bungie's Halo games and I'm an ATVI stock holder.
If it's a MMO FPS that involves working with human characters against CPU opponents, I'm totally down for that. I've been waiting for a real co-op FPS. One that doesn't involve team deathmatch against other human opponents.
Maybe that already exists and I'm ignorant to it. But I'm also console-centric...
I'm excited also because I love Bungie's Halo games and I'm an ATVI stock holder.
There have been a ton of co-op shooters released this gen. You should check some of them out =p
Skiptastic
Member
I was speaking more in terms of MMO style. I've played L4D and other multiplayer co-op versions of "single player" storyline games. I loved those experiences.
Skiptastic
Member
No worries! I might try Borderlands again someday. I started that when I was super busy and just had no real time to enjoy it. Dead Island I just couldn't get into...
Demoncarnotaur
Member
I do really feel bad for Bungie with this leak, they really have no huge surprises in terms of what packages are coming, sequels, expansions, Marathon, etc. That said, at least this didn't spell out setting, story, etc so there are still plenty of surprises when it comes to what content this will include. I still wonder how this contract leaked out of the courtrooms.
I assume we can expect to see something at e3? Also, while this contract read exclusive to xbox for the first game, I wouldn't be surprised if that changed and it will come for PS3 in 2013.
Cool, I forgot these were available.. downloading, Ill finally give the series a try.
I assume we can expect to see something at e3? Also, while this contract read exclusive to xbox for the first game, I wouldn't be surprised if that changed and it will come for PS3 in 2013.
Cool, I forgot these were available.. downloading, Ill finally give the series a try.
electricpirate
Member
I'm assuming we'll get a big annoucement at e3, and now I'm figuring it's part of MS's conference instead of activisions.
I'm also assuming that the PA report is going to have a major blowout/interview with the studio as soon as it get's released. I don't think that awesome photoshoot just happened for funsies
.I'm pretty sure it became public records once it was brought up during the trial. It wasn't leaked in a traditional sense.
ElRenoRaven
Member
They're worth it without a doubt. They hold up amazingly well even all these years later.
Rygar 8 Bit
Jaguar 64-bit
*cough* planetside *cough*
RobotChant
Member
Because MS owned Bungie, even acquired Take-Two's share of Bungie. This wasn't just a dev studio and publisher type of deal. I think they even changed the name.
Silly.Mikey
Banned
Bungie was so fed up of making Halo, that they decided to move on and make an "non-Halo" Halo game.
Edit: How exactly is a console exclusive FPS MMO gonna work on a 360 console that, for some reason, cant do MMOs other than that FF one? All the 360 MMOs that i can remember got cancelled.
Edit: How exactly is a console exclusive FPS MMO gonna work on a 360 console that, for some reason, cant do MMOs other than that FF one? All the 360 MMOs that i can remember got cancelled.
This is just silly. Marathon and Halo are both sci-fi FPS series. Are they similar? No. I presume Destiny is their next-gen take on FPS, the same way Halo was at the time when compared to Marathon (and really, anything else).
GillianSeed79
Member
Didn't Microsoft have the right of first refusal as part of their agreement with Bungie when they went independent, meaning that could have first dibs on publishing any new IP? Of course that was a few years ago, so I doubt that comes into play, but would that explain anything about the first game being an exclusive or timed exclusive? Probably not, but maybe part of their deal when they went independent was that MS would have timed exclusivity rights to the first of any new IP. I'm completely wrong probably.
Silly.Mikey
Banned
It would be nice to see what else they're capable of. We all know they can make sci-fi shooters. How about something different, eventually. It was nice when they took risks, like Myth and Oni.
By hey, another shooter! Yay, just what the market needs.
It probably was only for this New IP, seeing as Bungie did start work (atleast Jason and a few other guys) on it after Halo 2 was released (and still owned by MS).
Probably doesn't extend to Marathon or any future IPs, but then again we don't have any knowledge on what happened between Bungie and MS.
Reagan's BR
Banned
Silly.Mikey
Banned
End that and you end the need for 3 consoles on the market.
funkystudent
Member
Kind of bored about talking about this ps3 nonsense BUT when I went to there website to read that message they posted about the leak
http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=news&cid=32112
There is a giant "BUNGIE IS HIRING FOR PS3" banner on the right side of the website.
Has that been on there website for a while now or is it Bungie winking and nodding "hey.. we are totally working on ps3 so shut up about it".
The only reason I would see there new game not being day and date for ps3 if there was some Microsoft shenanigans. Activision would love to get the game on as many platforms as possible and would probably help bungie with extra help if needed to make it happen.
Bungie probably would want it as well because its more money and exposing themselves to a wider audience on ps3.
Waiting for the ps4 would be a bit silly since the audience is gonna be a fraction of the ps3's.
Also reading that document again and you know what kind of stands out just a little? No Mac version mentioned.
I know mac gaming isnt really a thing but I would have guesses for old times sake Bungie might have tried to get something out on Mac.
http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=news&cid=32112
There is a giant "BUNGIE IS HIRING FOR PS3" banner on the right side of the website.
Has that been on there website for a while now or is it Bungie winking and nodding "hey.. we are totally working on ps3 so shut up about it".
The only reason I would see there new game not being day and date for ps3 if there was some Microsoft shenanigans. Activision would love to get the game on as many platforms as possible and would probably help bungie with extra help if needed to make it happen.
Bungie probably would want it as well because its more money and exposing themselves to a wider audience on ps3.
Waiting for the ps4 would be a bit silly since the audience is gonna be a fraction of the ps3's.
Also reading that document again and you know what kind of stands out just a little? No Mac version mentioned.
I know mac gaming isnt really a thing but I would have guesses for old times sake Bungie might have tried to get something out on Mac.
bigtroyjon
Member
Nothing in the contract would stop Bungie from releasing the PS3 version at the same time as the 360 version if that's what they wanted to do.
ME1 was a MS funded and published game, that's why it was exclusive. After Bioware was bought by EA it went multiplat.
Louis Cyphre
Banned
Pretty much and Microsoft didn't want to buy Bioware.
Microsoft knows that by being very aggressive attaining third party support it can offset the need to finance their own studios or buy/create new game studios.
The hiring for PS3 banner has been on their site for as long as I can remember now, has to have been there for at least a year, probably much longer than that.