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[TheRooster]

So anyone who has read this months Game Informer is probably aware that Bungie has left Microsoft with all of their IP except the Halo name itself.

So Microsoft will naturally make another Halo game. It will probably be very by the book and derivative. Bungie on the other hand has hinted that they meant for MC to be the same individual as the protagonist of Marathon. They have even hinted that they would like to remake or sequelize Marathon as the continuation of the series.

So what this means to me is that sometime around 2010, we're going to have two competing Halo games. As great as that could be, it would be a shame if one or both totally sucked. I mean if you think about it, how could Halo be good without it's core trademarked themes and how could it be good without Bungie? Seems like a no win situation to me, but I'll have a little faith.

In similar news, F.E.A.R., Hitman, Knights of the Old Republic and Metroid Prime all appear to be in the same position. The developers have either been sold or have gone independant and are now making a competing followup vs. the old publisher.

[d2_s]

Looking on the bright side , we could end up with 2 kick ass Halo games .... my bet would be on the Marathon sequal kicking ass and the M$ game being generic, but hey .... anything can happen.

As far as the other IPs go ... let's just hope that a bunch of new IPs come out and kick ass and it will be a bonus if the others don't suck hard :)

[Foe-hammer]

Metroid Prime dev's jumped ship from Nintendo camp? First i heard of that.

[Goldenheart]

TheRooster, on Nov 29 2007, 07:22 PM, said:

So anyone who has read this months Game Informer is probably aware that Bungie has left Microsoft with all of their IP except the Halo name itself.

So Microsoft will naturally make another Halo game. It will probably be very by the book and derivative. Bungie on the other hand has hinted that they meant for MC to be the same individual as the protagonist of Marathon. They have even hinted that they would like to remake or sequelize Marathon as the continuation of the series.

I don't understand. M$ can make a Halo game, but they can't call it "Halo"??? :dntknw: And if Bungie let M$ have everything but the name, how would the "Halo" game Bungie makes next have anything of Halo in it?

Coming soon from Microsoft: "Master Chief Clifford and the Big Giant Ring"
???

[Mister Y]

Goldenheart, on Nov 30 2007, 01:03 AM, said:

TheRooster, on Nov 29 2007, 07:22 PM, said:

So anyone who has read this months Game Informer is probably aware that Bungie has left Microsoft with all of their IP except the Halo name itself.

So Microsoft will naturally make another Halo game. It will probably be very by the book and derivative. Bungie on the other hand has hinted that they meant for MC to be the same individual as the protagonist of Marathon. They have even hinted that they would like to remake or sequelize Marathon as the continuation of the series.

I don't understand. M$ can make a Halo game, but they can't call it "Halo"??? :dntknw: And if Bungie let M$ have everything but the name, how would the "Halo" game Bungie makes next have anything of Halo in it?

Coming soon from Microsoft: "Master Chief Clifford and the Big Giant Ring"
???

No, Bungie took everything, but the Halo name with them. That means Microsoft can still make games under the Halo brand.

[Goldenheart]

Mister Y, on Nov 30 2007, 01:15 AM, said:

No, Bungie took everything, but the Halo name with them. That means Microsoft can still make a games under the Halo brand.

I think I took "name" too literally. So M$ has ALL rights to all things Halo. Is that right? If that's true, how could Bungie also make a Halo game?

I almost understand.

[Mister Y]

Goldenheart, on Nov 30 2007, 01:38 AM, said:

Mister Y, on Nov 30 2007, 01:15 AM, said:

No, Bungie took everything, but the Halo name with them. That means Microsoft can still make a games under the Halo brand.

I think I took "name" too literally. So M$ has ALL rights to all things Halo. Is that right? If that's true, how could Bungie also make a Halo game?

I almost understand.

I guess it'd work the same way as the F.E.A.R. series. Vivendi and Monolith can both make games in the F.E.A.R. universe, but only Vivendi gets to use the name.

[Goldenheart]

Mister Y, on Nov 30 2007, 01:45 AM, said:

I guess it'd work the same way as the F.E.A.R. series. Vivendi and Monolith can both make games in the F.E.A.R. universe, but only Vivendi gets to use the name.

Never paid attention to F.E.A.R.. So Bungie could make a game with a soldier in the Halo universe, battling the same aliens, in the same war, but they can't call it Halo? Talk about splitting hairs. :dntknw:

Can they use the Master Chief, or have to get a new hero?
Can they still call the Halo devices Halo?
It sounds strange to me. They're in the same "Halo universe" but only 1 company can put "Halo" in the game's title? 2 companies owning rights to the same game is a whole new concept to me... but I'm sure that's quite obvious by now.

[TonyDP]

Having another developer take a stab at a Halo game may not be such a bad thing. For all their accomplishments, I think Bungie still has trouble nurturing the single player campaign. Their storytelling skills are also lacking as I thought the cinematics in Halo2 and Halo3 were very disjointed. They make great games but there's also lots of room for improvement.

Same goes for other IP's like KOTOR. Bioware is a great company and Mass Effect is a great game, but given the amount of time it was in development, the glitches and unstable frame rates in the game are just inexcusable; I'd hate to see KOTOR3 suffer from the same deficiencies. Maybe somebody else can use the 360 hardware more effectively.

A little competition just might be a good thing all around.

[Brandino]

I think people are confused, the TS is trying to say that Bungie will make another Marathon game and in appearence and gameplay it will be very similar to the Halo series perhaps even better.

Microsoft definately owns the Master Chief and Halo , Cortana , Warthogs etc all that stuff.

IMO Halo 4 will still be better because Bungie if they make Marathon whatever it wont have nearly the same budget that the Halo games have had.

[Foe-hammer]

Brandino, on Nov 30 2007, 05:55 AM, said:

I think people are confused, the TS is trying to say that Bungie will make another Marathon game and in appearence and gameplay it will be very similar to the Halo series perhaps even better.

Microsoft definately owns the Master Chief and Halo , Cortana , Warthogs etc all that stuff.

IMO Halo 4 will still be better because Bungie if they make Marathon whatever it wont have nearly the same budget that the Halo games have had.

Having a big budget does not always = better games.

BUNGIE is the perfect example of this. The first Halo only had 15 members working on it, and it was pretty much already completed before it was compiled onto the xbox. Halo 1 did not have a big budget, and yet it was the best in the series.

Me thinks that BUNGIE games will only get better now that they went back to being independent, and in effect have much less of a budget for making games.

[d2_s]

Agreed, their budget may be smaller, but their creative freedom certainly isn't!!!

Anyway, who knows .... with the success they have had I am sure there are publishers willing to throw funds at them for their next hit.

[TheRooster]

I definitely agree with Foe Hammer and TonyDP on this one. These second party developers have been riding the gravy train with big budget and big hype from their publishers. I would post one caveat, that Mass Effect and Halo 2 & 3 are games that are so much better than the competition that their shortcomings are academic. Even though Halo 2 has strange cutscene glitches, it's still twice the game that Killzone is. Unfortunately I think it's partially all that money that made them so good.

Oh and btw, Retro is a full second party, not owned mostly by Nintendo. There was animosity between the two because Nintendo tried to force them to change the game in the last year to make it seem more like a competitor to Halo 3. So no MP4.

[Sir Auros]

I haven't read the latest article in GI (the Ghostbusters issue, right?), but only because the MS/Bungie split is old news and unless things have changed since the story originally broke, it didn't sound like this was what was going to happen. The way it was told originally was that Bungie will continue the main Halo games, but receive a larger share of profits and MS will publish Halo-related games (see Halo Wars). Beneficial for both parties without the ludicrous scenario Rooster describes. I'll read that article next time I pick up that issue of GI.

[Archetype]

Thank god for no more Prime. I love Metroid, but another series plz.

[TheRooster]

Can you put in a link to the original news Sir Auros? I never read any other official statement, but the way Bungie themselves described their intentions was what I read in GI. Go to the unlimited interview on the website for the full story. It pretty clearly says that Bungie is not interested in making further games in Microsoft's Halo main series. They want the freedom to take it in a different direction. They have also been talking for months about bringing back Marathon and the interview hints that the two are one and the same. So just FYI, it sounds like that "Halo isn't going anywhere" is just more of the always so accurate M$oft PR lines. In other words it's a lie just like exclusive GTA4.

[kyle_5_16]

What I remember reading was that Bungie would still be making Halo for MS, but that they were going to be expanding or something to also work on new IP's.

[Sir Auros]

kyle_5_16, on Nov 30 2007, 06:25 PM, said:

What I remember reading was that Bungie would still be making Halo for MS, but that they were going to be expanding or something to also work on new IP's.

That's what I remember, too. Bungie (from their website, podcast, and interviews elsewhere) sounded like they broke away to work on new IPs and get a larger share of profit from the Halo series if/when they do return to it.

Not to sound rude, but I can't be bothered to look up the original story, but if you want to sound informed (Rooster), then look around yourself since the story broke almost two months ago. I did check out gameinformer.com and found this interview with Frankie that seems to reinforce what I'd read earlier. Yeah, he mentions that they'd like to approach it from a different direction, but that doesn't mean the FUD perspective is accurate.

[TheRooster]

Hey man I'm not debating what the article says, but I've been playing games for a long, long time, and I've seen a million split ups and developer sales. When they say they want to take it in a new direction and the publisher says they are going to make other spin-off games to keep the license alive, it turns out like that. I mean, look at Rare and Perfect Dark. Rare goes off to Microsoft to make PDZ while Nintendo salvages the code they have the rights to and makes Geist. Both games totally suck and we the people get screwed.

If you don't want to waste your time carrying the torch for a franchise that is going to dissapoint you, read between the lines. My speculation is that Halo is headed in the direction I described above. I base this on hearing the exact same thing many times before and always being dissapointed. I know we all love Halo and I don't want to believe it either. But on the other hand, developers should make new IPs so they don't feel chained down and make crap.

After all, I was pissed in 1998, when Bungie decided not to make Myth 3 and decided to make some stupid squad based strategy game called "Halo" for the Mac.

And if PD and Goldeneye never struck your fancy, here are a few other examples:
From Mortal Kombat, Ed Boon goes solo to make the despised Tao Feng
Io interactive key team members leave to go independent and Kane and Lynch just isn't Hitman

And only because I'm forced to bring it up, without the George Lucas and the Force on his side EVERY SINGLE awesome Tim Schaffer game goes unappreciated and unloved into the bargain bin despite rave reviews and constant press references.

[Goldenheart]

TonyDP, on Nov 30 2007, 07:35 AM, said:

Having another developer take a stab at a Halo game may not be such a bad thing. For all their accomplishments, I think Bungie still has trouble nurturing the single player campaign. Their storytelling skills are also lacking as I thought the cinematics in Halo2 and Halo3 were very disjointed. They make great games but there's also lots of room for improvement.

I thought the Cortanna flashes were cool... at first... and only the first time around. Towards the end, what she and Gravemind said just seemed nonsensical to me.