Though Bungie is well known for their Xbox and Xbox 360 titles, all of which are part of the Halo series, their split with Microsoft in 2007 has done little to rule out the possibility of multiplatform development. As free agents, they have the ability to work with any publisher on any platform, and according to Bungie’s Lars Bakken the team is fairly close to securing a publishing deal for their brand new IP.
“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!”
Halo: ODST and Halo: Reach are the last two Halo titles that Bungie owes Microsoft, but fellow developer Bethesda feels that while Bungie does have to freedom to choose a new publisher, the actual number of publishers who can afford their hefty price tag is fairly limited. Bethesda’s production director, Ashley Cheng, stated the following:
“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.
There is one more publisher who could get into the game: Sony.”
Considering the high calibur of Bungie’s games, it would great to see them bring their development talent to as many platforms as possible, including the PS3. We’ll just have to wait on their official announcement regarding the final publisher and platform(s).
