Bungie Leaving Microsoft
It’s now semi-official that Bungie Studios is leaving Microsoft and there is a lot of speculation on what the ramifications for both companies are. From my perspective, it’s good for both companies. Here’s why:
- Bungie will have more independence to develop the type of games they want and the ability to build games for multiple platforms.
- Bungie employees will have more financial incentive to work harder and grow Bungie as opposed to being a single line item on Microsoft’s Financial spreadsheet.
- In a related note, it also makes it easier to attract new employees to Bungie who don’t want to work for a large corporation like Microsoft
- Microsoft on the other hand still retains the IP for Halo and the first right of refusal for any future Bungie products
- Microsoft gets to remove a fairly big chunk of expenses off it’s financial books making it’s game division looking better in the eyes of investors.
At the end of the day, I believe Microsoft looked at Bungie’s proposal and was faced with two options: take the deal Bungie was offering or watch it happen anyway with no control of the situation. There isn’t too much Microsoft can do to stop key Bungie talent from leaving Microsoft and starting their own development house and with this deal, at least Microsoft has some control over the situation.