Bethesda: Only a Few Publishers Can Afford New Bungie IP

[Shirosaki]

Bethesda: Only a Few Publishers Can Afford New Bungie IP

Written Monday, July 27, 2009 by Dan Webb

We've known for some time that Bungie's last Halo title was going to be next year's Reach ... I mean, why else would Microsoft have let the studio go independent and created 343 Industries? It ultimately left the doors open for Bungie to create a new IP. Bethesda Game Studio's Production Director, Ashley Cheng, posted on his personal blog that only a handful of publishers could afford Bungie's new IP ... one of those being Bethesda.

Cheng writes, "you can count on one hand the number of publisher's around who can afford to publish Bungie's next game: EA (via EA Partners), Activision, Ubisoft, Microsoft, and of course, Bethesda. I can only imagine how much it will cost to snag their next title."
And to throw a spanner into Microsoft's works, Cheng adds, "there is one more publisher who could get into the game: Sony. That would be interesting. Unlikely."

That would be interesting indeed. I'm sure Microsoft will have drafted that into their sales contract as part of the terms and conditions of release though. If they had any sense they would.

Source.

 

[Xeon]

Re: Bethesda: Only a Few Publishers Can Afford New Bungie IP

I got my money on Microsoft, they ain't gotta let a money cow like Bungie go without a fight.

EDIT: July 27, 2009 - Bungie recently said that after Halo: Reach the company is moving on from the Halo franchise.

So when can we expect to hear what the famed developer has in store for us next?

Bungie multiplayer designer Lars Bakken told Eurogamer the studio is pretty close to getting a publishing deal for a new title, and expects to know soon, but us fans will have to wait on that news.

"I think internally we'll know sometime soon. I don't handle these things, but I'd imagine we're going to know way before we make the public announcement of who's handling that! But sure, I think those talks are, I guess, close," Bakken said.

I can't imagine the price it would cost to lock up Bungie. EA and Activision certainly have deep pockets. Perhaps this means we'll see multiplatform titles?