Bungie

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There is more information available on this subject at Bungie on the English Wikipedia.

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Bungie Incorporated, formerly Bungie LLC and Bungie Software Products Corporation prior to its emancipation from Microsoft, is a video game developer founded in 1991.

History

Founding

"The culture of Bungie was pretty simple. It was just a bunch of college kids who wanted drink beer and eat pizza and do amazing cool stuff in their basements."

— Chris Butcher

For much of the 1990s they developed a series of increasingly technically detailed first-person shooter (FPS) games for the Macintosh, the most famous being the Marathon series, following this with the acclaimed Myth tactical-combat series for both the Mac and Windows. Bungie games were particularly well-loved by players due to their complex back stories which often left more mysteries unexplained than revealed.

In 1997, Bungie Studios established Bungie West, a studio in California. However, the studio didn't last long and was shut down in 2000. Bungie West's only game was Oni.

Creation of Halo series

"Even through the Microsoft acquisition, Bungie's purpose is not to make money for Microsoft and support the platform. Instead, Bungie's purpose is to make great stuff like video games."

— Chris Butcher

In 1999 they announced that their next product was a return to the FPS genre, with a world-beating physics and AI system, to be known as Halo and to be released at the same time on both the Mac and Windows operating systems. On June 19, 2000, Microsoft announced that they had acquired Bungie Software and that Bungie would become a part of the Microsoft Game Division (subsequently renamed Microsoft Game Studios) under the name Bungie Studios. The original versions were soon delayed and the game was re-purposed for the Xbox, with the Mac and Windows versions only shipping two years later when it was no longer the renowned product it would have been in about late 2000. The Xbox version of Halo received the Game of the Year and Console Game of the Year awards for 2002 from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, is known as a system seller and as of 2004 is still a videogame bestseller. Halo: Combat Evolved has been one of the most critically acclaimed games over the last three years, and its sequel Halo 2 has been called the 'most anticipated game of all time' by IGN Xbox.

End of partnership

"Independence was the only thing that was going to be able to allow us to do what we wanted to do. "

— Pete Parsons

On October 5, 2007, Bungie and Microsoft announced an end to their partnership, effectively making Bungie an independent company once again, now titled Bungie LLC (limited liability corporation). The Halo Intellectual Property (IP) remains with Microsoft. Bungie employees have mentioned that there have been 'few noticeable changes' after the split.

Their offices were originally based in Chicago, Illinois. After Microsoft's acquisition, they moved into the Microsoft Campus at Redmond, Washington. They have more recently moved to Kirkland, Washington.

New partnership

"We are moving on. We're building something new, something totally different."

— Eric Osbourne

On April 29, 2010, Bungie entered an exclusive 10-year partnership with Activision which 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 will remain as an independent company and will continue to own their intellectual property. On June 30, 2011, Bungie announced "Bungie Aerospace", a platform to help small, independent mobile or social game developers launch their games. Destiny is Bungie's first project since Halo: Reach.

Vicarious Visions partnership

"Vicarious Visions is excited to announce that we are partnering with Bungie to further expand the Award-Winning Destiny Universe."

— Facebook photo of Vicarious Visions' official Facebook account

On December 8th, 2016, Bungie entered into a partnership with Vicarious Visions to expand the Destiny universe.

Leaving Activision

In January 2019, it was announced that Bungie was parting ways with Activision. Bungie would retain the rights to the Destiny IP, though Destiny 2 would remain on the battle.net launcher for the time being. On June 6th 2019 it was revealed that Destiny 2 would move to Steam for the release of Shadowkeep

Acquisition by Sony

On January 31, 2022, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced its intent to acquire Bungie for $3.6 billion.

The acquisition closed on July 15th, 2022, officially making Bungie a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment.

In July 2024, Bungie lay off 17% of its workforce, citing rising development costs, industry shifts, and difficult economic conditions. 220 staff were laid off, with 155 of them integrated into Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Bungie games

• Gnop! (1990)
• Operation: Desert Storm (1991)
• Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete (1992)
• Pathways into Darkness (1993)
• Marathon (1994)
• Marathon 2: Durandal (1995)
• Abuse (Macintosh port) (1996)
• Marathon Infinity (1996)
• Weekend Warrior (Publisher, 1997)
• Myth: The Fallen Lords (1997)
• Myth II: Soulblighter (1998)
• Oni (2001)
• Halo: Combat Evolved (2001)
• Halo 2 (2004)
• Halo 3 (2007)
• Pimps at Sea (April Fools Joke)
• Halo 3: ODST (2009)
• Halo: Reach (2010)
• Destiny (2014)
• Destiny 2 (2017)

Upcoming games

• Marathon (TBA)

Platforms

• Bungie Aerospace (2011)
  • Crimson: Steam Pirates (2011)

Known employees

• Sage Merrill
• Christopher Barrett
• Joseph Staten
• Lars Bakken
• Luke Smith
• M.E. Chung
• Chris Gossett
• Clay Carmouche
• Guillaume Colomb
• Jason Harris
• Jerry Hook
• Matthew Ward
• Pete Parsons
• Scott Taylor
• Shiek Wang
• Steve Cotton
• Tom Doyle
• Tom Sanocki

Trivia

• Bungie's favorite number is 7.
• Gnop! is !Pong in reverse.

External links

• Official Homepage
• Halopedia, the wiki dedicated to Halo
• Aleph One Wiki: Bungie's Marathon Wiki
• Download the Marathon Trilogy for free, with Bungie's blessings.
• Interview with Alex Seropian about Bungie's acquisition by Microsoft