Bungie and Activision Announce Exclusive, Worldwide Partnership.

The story of Bungie is wild, winding, and full of majestic wonder. We’ve treaded many pathways over these last nineteen years. But for all the twists and turns we’ve taken, we’re still doing what we set out to do from the beginning, back when the whole of “Bungie Software Products Corporation” consisted of two friends operating out of a basement in Chicago:

Making kick ass games that we want to play.

And as Bungie has grown, the industry’s best and brightest have been totally accretive to our own creative margins. It’s no secret that while the full might of our studio has focused on making Halo: Reach, another core team, led by our co-founder and Studio Creative Director, Jason Jones, has already begun laying the groundwork to bring our newest universe, stories, and characters to life.

Today, we’re poised to open a new chapter in Bungie’s history—one that begins with a partnership between Bungie and Activision and ends where we always knew it would, with World Domination. Our Next Big Thing now has a concrete path, leading from our studio to the platforms of our choosing. The business formalities are behind us. Our Constitution remains unchanged. We are still Bungie, still independent, and now we are free to bring our stories to an ever bigger audience.

Next up, the most ambitious game we’ve ever made, Halo: Reach. Built upon ten years of experience developing the Halo franchise, we’ve assembled the best team, the best technology, and the best talent to ensure that Reach is the game our fans deserve. Strap in and buckle up tight, we’re sending our baby out with a bang.

Once the smoke clears, all the pieces will finally be in place for Step 7. Don’t worry, though. We won’t let World Domination go to our heads. We’re gonna keep making kick ass games on our own terms, and since you’ve been so supportive throughout the years, we’d love to bring you along for the ride.

Kirkland, WA and Santa Monica, CA – April 29, 2010 -- Bungie, the developer of blockbuster game franchises including Halo, Myth and Marathon, and Activision, a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the #1 online games publisher (Nasdaq: ATVI), announced today that they have entered into an exclusive 10-year partnership to bring Bungie’s next big action game universe to market. 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 on multiple platforms and devices. Bungie remains an independent company and will continue to own their intellectual property. Additional terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The groundbreaking alliance will provide Bungie its first such partnership since splitting off from Microsoft in 2007, significantly broadening its global reach by providing the resources and support to develop, distribute and release games worldwide on multiple platforms and devices.

Activision will broaden its portfolio with a new franchise from one of the industry’s most creative, successful and proven studios, whose games have sold more than 25 million units worldwide. To date, Bungie’s Halo games have generated approximately $1.5 billion in revenues, according to The NPD Group, Charttrack and GfK. Activision expects this agreement to be accretive to its operating margins as of the release of the first game.

“We chose to partner with Activision on our next IP because of their global reach, multi-platform experience and marketing expertise,” said Harold Ryan, President of Bungie. “From working together over the past nine months on this agreement, it is clear that Activision supports our commitment to giving our fans the best possible gaming experiences.”

“Bungie is one of the premier studios in our industry and we are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to work with their talented team over the next decade,” stated Thomas Tippl, Chief Operating Officer of Activision Blizzard. “Bungie has developed some of the most compelling and successful games, multiplayer experiences and thriving fan communities, and this alliance underscores our long-standing commitment to foster the industry’s best creative talent. Our unprecedented partnership with Bungie will enable us to broaden our pipeline of exciting new games as we continue to strengthen our industry position and pursue long-term growth opportunities.”

Our Next Big Thing now has a concrete path, leading from our studio to the platforms of our choosing.

...with Activision

But what's the game?

"This is a brand-new action game universe that we'll be working on," Jarrard told us today. "It's definitely not revisiting anything from our past."

And it'll be grand: "With the scale and ambition of what we hope to accomplish with our next universe — how bold we want it to be and how much time we want people to spend in our universe, and the types of stories we want to tell — it is going to take our best and brightest minds of our studio to make this vision a reality. It is going to take everything we have to pull this off."

As for the genre, Jarrard wouldn't bite on a question about whether it will or won't be a first-person shooter, a la Halo, other than to say: "Looking back on our pedigree we'll definitely be building on the strengths that have helped Bungie to get where we are today."

Initial "seed and discussions" for this new Bungie game/series date back a couple of years, Jarrard told us today. The early work has been overseen by top Bungie creator Jason Jones and has involved work from "a lot of the guys that were on the original core Halo Combat Evolved team."

Gamers can think of the game as being in the pre-production stage for now. It's percolating.

Activision and Bungie sealed their deal after about nine months of negotiation just this past week. The deal was announced today, Jarrard said, "because in this industry you can't keep this kind of thing under wraps." He acknowledged that the negative press Activision has received over its legal battles against the ousted creators of Modern Warfare 2 made the timing "not super-ideal." But the parties wanted to get the news out there, and in front of the publicity push for Halo: Reach, which launches early access to its high-profile multiplayer Xbox 360 beta today." Jarrard said he is confident Bungie has a great deal with Activision.

Deals like this lead to speculation about crossovers. One candidate of the Bungie-Activision arrangement would seem to be the online networking of Bungie's next game. Activision, of course, has World of Warcraft, arguably the most successful online games in history. That allows Bungie access to added expertise, Jarrard said, but Bungie will still have control of how its game operates on every level. "We definitely intend to continue to build on our pedigree for community and social engagement and the online aspects of all the games we built and that's certainly a big part of our future as well." Jarrard said he is excited about meddling Bungie's online know-how with Activision's.