9th May 2010 - In our 5th developer profile, we look at the Halo series developer Bungie.
Developer Name: Bungie LLC
Subsidiary Of: Independent
Founded: 1991
About: We all know Bungie. All of us- whether we have played a game of Halo or just been jealous because we don’t own an Xbox and cant play said game of Halo, we All. Know. Bungie. But a lot of people out there still don’t know how they came to be just how big of the mammoth they are today.
Though previously they had a few iffy little games under their belt, Bungie’s first major breakthrough was with the Mac-only title Marathon. Widely considered to be the most technically impressive and revolutionary FPS of the time; one which was just getting coverage with the likes of Doom of Wolfenstien 3D. The game had little success, but enough to warrant a few sequels and even a port or two. One of which would be Bungie’s first ever Console game, released on the Pippin in the late 90’s.
Things went from good to great when Bungie was bought out by Microsoft, who then launched a little game named Halo along with the Microsoft Xbox. Halo immediately became the Xbox’s flagship game and has since become a multi-billion dollar franchise, with books, animations, clothing and even a movie in production. Halo has been an Xbox exclusive series in the console market since and is now one of the biggest selling and most loved gaming series of all time.
Things keep looking up for Bungie as they are now considered one of the most desired and respected developers in the world, but not without controversy; Last week Bungie announced they had signed a 10 year contract with flamed publisher Activision Blizzard for their next IP, to be released multiplatform. Remaining independent, and having been so since 2007, Bungie are looking to be one step closer to their much spoken goal of World Domination, and nothing looks to stop them.
Past Games:
Operation Desert Storm (Mac, 1991)
Minotaur: Labyrinths of Crete (Mac, 1992)
Pathways into Darkness (Mac, 1993)
Marathon (Mac, 1994)
Marathon 2: Durandal (Mac/PC, 1995)
Marathon Infinity (Mac, 1996)
Myth: The Fallen Lords (Mac/PC, 1997)
Myth: Soulblighter (Mac/PC, 1998)
Oni (Mac/PC/PS2, 2001)
Halo: Combat Evolved (Mac/PC/Xbox, 2001)
Halo 2 (PC/Xbox, 2004)
Halo 3 (Xbox 360, 2007)
Halo 3: ODST (Xbox 360, 2009)
Upcoming Games:
Halo: Reach (Xbox 360, 2010)
Untitled new IP (TBA)
Article by John Elliott