[Geo]

Originally Posted by AzBat

Also, how does having 40-45% interest in a company correspond with controlling the board room? Isn't that a minority stake?

Ask the Ford family!

Seriously, there are ways to accomplish that by having different classes of stock, not all of which has voting rights. So while my eyebrow went up fractionally on that part of the report, I didn't "wtf!?" at all. That doesn't make that part of the report right/wrong, it just didn't automatically fail my giggle test.

[one]

Originally Posted by Rangers

here's a interview with bungie's frank o'conner about the split.

http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=17682

FO: We have Marathon. Microsoft owns Halo, and Take2 I believe, owns Myth and Oni. But we're also all about new ideas.

It contradicts the first post in this thread. It's great if Marathon appears on Mac again.

[AzBat]

Originally Posted by Rangers

here's a interview with bungie's frank o'conner about the split.

http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=17682

More interviews:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=29329

http://kotaku.com/gaming/feature/bun...-qa-307656.php

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2007/...y-new-devkits/

Now I'm confused as to the staus of Halo 4, and who is doing the game..

Thanks for the links. Here's a few more...

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?op...=7416&Itemid=2

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3163440

Looks like Bungie still owns Pimps At Sea.

Tommy McClain

[Carl B]

Originally Posted by AzBat

Looks to me B-Hive helped Bungie buy back their company. I don't see any evidence that this means IPO, but I can buy the reasoning that this was done to make Microsoft's Entertainment division profitable.

B-Hive was the firm they retained for M&A advice/advocacy in this case; it's simply the norm to bring consultants like this on to make sure that corporate interests (and the interests of the principals) are looked after in the creation of a new entity.

Originally Posted by one

It contradicts the first post in this thread. It's great if Marathon appears on Mac again.

Well, the first post was abandoned as factual early into the thread; it just remains there for a de facto framework until the situation clarifies a bit more.

[RobertR1]

Originally Posted by Rangers

Now I'm confused as to the staus of Halo 4, and who is doing the game..

Ultimately, MS decides who does Halo4. From today till Halo4, many things could and likely will change so I'm not sure how valid today's plans would be. Hell, they could even bid it out to a number of studios. Bungie, Epic guys who did Bioshock and others are plenty capable.

[BoardBonobo]

Why would there be a Halo 4?

[Shifty Geezer]

Because they Halo franchise makes hundreds of millions of dollars per game?

[Subtlesnake]

Well, Microsoft have said they're looking to expand the universe in a broader way, to turn it into something like Star Wars. So I don't see why there has to be a direct sequel to Halo 3. Future games could simply take place in the same universe, telling different stories, with different mechanics (which is what they're doing with Halo Wars and the Peter Jackson project).

[AlStrong]

They do have an avenue open already with the Onyx Shield world, which they termed a micro-Dyson sphere. There we've got Cortana's originator (Dr. Halsey), CPO Mendez, some Spartan IIIs and Spartan IIs.

Coming soon - Onyx Sphere: Walking Evolved

They can still make more Halo games as long as the other installations exist.

[Johnny Awesome]

Fantastic deal for MS IMO. Good deal for Bungie if they can produce more hits and that remains to be seen...

[Asher]

I really didn't like Myth and Oni. I hope they don't give Halo the backseat for sequels to those games...

[Cyan]

Originally Posted by patsu

Well... at this moment, according to that list, MS still have control -- unless that list is bogus (which sounds more and more likely to me).

Yes, a controlled control since they've gone over from being slaves to being friends, which is nice for Bungie (and MS) so they can create non rushed games.

In the past I thought the best situation for non rushed games would be to go with Microsoft but was I wrong!

Perhaps from here on and in the next generation things will get back to normal just like in the GC-Xbox-PS2 era.

[Subtlesnake]

Well, is there any evidence that Halo 3 was rushed? You'd think if Bungie needed a few more months, MS would have given them that time.

As for Halo 2, I think you have to remember that Bungie effectively scrapped 80% of their content half-way through, which was what forced them to crunch so hard, and have to ship the game before it was truly ready.

[valioso]

1up Interview With BUngie

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3163440

[fireshot]

They are not really independent if MS has a stake in them, kinda like Sony<>Squaresoft?

[StefanS]

Originally Posted by fireshot

They are not really independent if MS has a stake in them, kinda like Sony<>Squaresoft?

Well, there's a large difference: Sony's holds currently 8.9% of S-E stocks and thus hasn't even a control stock. Meanwhile, MS owns 45% of Bungie and has the majority rights.

[Silent_Buddha]

Originally Posted by Asher

I really didn't like Myth and Oni. I hope they don't give Halo the backseat for sequels to those games...

And here, Myth was the one thing I was really looking forward to from this. Although considering the IP is owned by another company puts a cramp in things.

I loved Myth. It was a game in the spirit of books like The Black Company series by Glen Cook. And I LOVE that series. I must have played the original Myth a bajillion times. :P

Makes me wonder if they will do anything to either regain the rights to Myth or possible make another Myth game to be published by the IP holder.

I can't imagine the IP for Myth is worth very much right now as the last game was a PoS. So hopefully they could get it back for fairly cheap.

Regards,
SB