Bungie Announces Partnership With Activision

This morning the Bungie Blog announced their “Exclusive, Worldwide Partnership” with Activision. More on the breaking news after the jump.

Bungie, the developers behind the FPS giant Halo, was purchased by Microsoft in 2000 but they parted ways in 2007. Since then, though the studio has focused more of its attention on Reach,  “another core team, led by our co-founder and Studio Creative Director, Jason Jones, has already begun laying the groundwork to bring our newest universe, stories, and characters to life.” New IPs which we will see published by Activision for the next ten years.

The official press release describes the nature of the partnership: “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.”

Surprised? The studio explains, “Our Next Big Thing now has a concrete path, leading from our studio to the platforms of our choosing. The business formalities are behind us.Our Constitution remains unchanged. We are still Bungie, still independent, and now we are free to bring our stories to an ever bigger audience,” and that furthermore We chose to partner with Activision on our next IP because of their global reach, multi-platform experience and marketing expertise.”

Could this mean a new IP on the PS3, on the Wii?

Ecstatic, Activision’s Chief Operating Officer of Activision Blizzard states that “we are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to work with their talented team over the next decade.