Bungie Buddies Up With Activision for 10-Year Deal

Even more out of left-field than HP buying Palm, Activision and Bungie come out of nowhere and announce that the two companies have just agreed to a multiple-year, worldwide exclusive agreement. Before you jump the gun, though, that doesn't mean that Halo Reach will be coming to more consoles than Microsoft's Xbox 360, but it does mean that their future titles will be doing just that.

In an official announcement today, Activision and Bungie have come clean on a 10-year, exclusive agreement to work together as publisher and developer, respectively. Bungie, as you're probably well aware, is the house that created the mega-hit Halo, along with a few other titles like Marathon and Myth, have notoriously been Microsoft bedfellows. For all intents and purposes, many consider Halo to be the game that truly built up Microsoft's home console. As for Activision, they're famous for several published titles, but most notably the Call of Duty franchise. The whole deal is designed to significantly increase Bungie's exposure to the console war, which up until now, has been segregated to the Xbox 360.

The agreement means that Activision has the sole, exclusive, worldwide rights to publish and distribute Bungie's next titles, as many as they can release in the 10-year mark. Which is a good move on both the company's parts, as this means that it's not an exclusive right to a particular series, but means that Bungie will be able to get their titles to all of the major consoles, no matter what the game is. There's no word on what title is coming next from Bungie, but we can imagine that it's going to be a First Person Shooter (FPS). Full press release below.

BUNGIE AND ACTIVISION ANNOUNCE EXCLUSIVE, WORLDWIDE PARTNERSHIP

10-Year Alliance Expands Global Reach for Leading Game Developer Across Multiple Platforms

Kirkland, WA and Santa Monica, CA – April 29, 2010 — Bungie, the developer of blockbuster game franchises including Halo, Myth and Marathon, and Activision, a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the #1 online games publisher (Nasdaq: ATVI), announced today that they have entered into an exclusive 10-year partnership to bring Bungie's next big action game universe to market. Under the terms of the agreement, Activision 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 remains an independent company and will continue to own their intellectual property. Additional terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The groundbreaking alliance will provide Bungie its first such partnership since splitting off from Microsoft in 2007, significantly broadening its global reach by providing the resources and support to develop, distribute and release games worldwide on multiple platforms and devices.

Activision will broaden its portfolio with a new franchise from one of the industry's most creative, successful and proven studios, whose games have sold more than 25 million units worldwide. To date, Bungie's Halo games have generated approximately $1.5 billion in revenues, according to The NPD Group, Charttrack and GfK. Activision expects this agreement to be accretive to its operating margins as of the release of the first game.

"We chose to partner with Activision on our next IP because of their global reach, multi-platform experience and marketing expertise," said Harold Ryan, President of Bungie. "From working together over the past nine months on this agreement, it is clear that Activision supports our commitment to giving our fans the best possible gaming experiences."

"Bungie is one of the premier studios in our industry and we are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to work with their talented team over the next decade," stated Thomas Tippl, Chief Operating Officer of Activision Blizzard. "Bungie has developed some of the most compelling and successful games, multiplayer experiences and thriving fan communities, and this alliance underscores our long-standing commitment to foster the industry's best creative talent. Our unprecedented partnership with Bungie will enable us to broaden our pipeline of exciting new games as we continue to strengthen our industry position and pursue long-term growth opportunities."