Bungie Studios

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Bungie
Bungie Studios logo
Type Video game developer
Founded 1991
Headquarters Kirkland, Washington, USA
Key people Jason Jones
Martin O'Donnell
Joseph Staten
Industry Computer and video game industry
Products Video games
Website http://bungie.net
Portal:Microsoft
 Microsoft Portal

Bungie Studios is an American video game developer founded in May of 1991 under the name "Bungie Software Products Corporation" (more popularly shortened to just "Bungie Software") by two undergraduate students at the University of Chicago, Alex Seropian and Jason Jones. Today it is part of Microsoft's Game Studios since being acquired in 2000. Bungie is best known as the developer of the popular video game series Halo, Marathon, and Myth.

Contents

[edit] History

Bungie's first "release" was Gnop!, a clone of Pong (notice that the word "gnop" is "pong" backwards), which was distributed for free. This was followed by the tile combat game Operation Desert Storm. For much of the 1990s they developed a series of increasingly technically detailed first person shooter (FPS) games for the Macintosh. Their first big break was 1993's Pathways Into Darkness, the first true FPS for the Mac.

Bungie would then follow with the groundbreaking Marathon series, which introduced a number of new concepts into the FPS genre. Marathon 2 was Bungie's first game that was released for Windows as well as Mac (though the Windows version was released a year later, in 1996). Many of the following titles would be dual platform as well, but Bungie was still considered a Macintosh publisher by many, producing some titles on the Macintosh platform first, or on Mac only.

Bungie's success gave rise to a large 3rd party developer community as well as a short lived newsletter published through BBS. Following the success of Marathon was Myth which created a new type of game featuring 3rd party combat and stressing unit management as opposed to the resource gathering model of other combat strategy titles. This spawned a large and active online community which is still active on playmyth.net, winning several awards and receiving cult status.

Bungie was seen as a significant member of the Macintosh developer community in the 1990s. The mid-1990s, in particular, was a dire time for the Mac platform, with many rumors circulating about Apple's low sales, poor financial performance, and the impending death of the Macintosh platform in an industry dominated by Microsoft Windows. Bungie was one of the few publishers to develop primarily for the Mac platform during this time, rather than port PC-platform games, or not publish for Mac at all.

In 1997, Bungie expanded and formed Bungie West, a studio in California. Bungie West created Bungie's first multi-platform game, Oni, to be released in 1999 for the Mac, PC, and Playstation 2. Oni was Bungie West's first and only game. The final version of Oni lacked multiplayer, significantly affecting the game's success. In 2000, Bungie West was closed, and the rights to Oni were sold to Take-Two Interactive.

In 1999, Bungie announced their next product, Halo, which featured a world-beating physics and AI system. Halo's public unveiling occurred at the Macworld Expo 1999 keynote address by Apple's then-interim-CEO Steve Jobs (after a closed-door screening at E3 in 1999). However, on June 19, 2000, (also known as Black Monday), 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. As a result, the Mac and PC versions were delayed, and the game was re-purposed for Microsoft's Xbox, on which it became the console's killer app. Bungie's sale to Apple's long-time rival Microsoft was seen as a betrayal by the Mac community at the time. Mac and Windows versions of Halo were eventually released two years later.

The Xbox version of Halo, which 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 topped videogame bestseller charts for almost two years. Halo has been one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time.

Prior to the release of their next game, Bungie oversaw and 'signed off' on the Haunted Apiary puzzle, an alternate reality game revolving around a 'hacked' bee-keeping website, the address for which appeared in the Halo 2 theatrical trailer. Bungie provided the Haunted Apiary designers with the "Halo Bible", allowing the story to fit to Bungie's specifics, but did not directly contribute to the game.

On November 9, 2004, Halo 2 was officially released. It was a huge hit, making more than $125 million on release day and setting a record in the entertainment industry.

On May 9, 2006, Microsoft announced Halo 3, Bungie's next installment in the Halo franchise, which will come to the Xbox 360 in 2007. On September 27, 2006, they announced two partnerships with Ensemble Studios and Wingnut Interactive to produce two games: Halo Wars and an untitled project, respectively. This will take the total number of Halo games coming to the Xbox 360 to a speculated three. Only two games have been officially announced Halo 3 and Halo Wars. It is currently known that they have over 100 employees working actively on current projects. Most of them are working on halo 3.

In September of 2005 Bungie moved into its new studio in Kirkland, Washington in order to support the growing size of the staff and resources in use.

[edit] Bungie mythos

Bungie, like many production companies, puts references to older games in newer games. Unlike others, many of these references hint or imply that a great deal of Bungie's games operate in similar or identical universes. Most well known of this is the connection between the Marathon universe and the Halo universe, which share a great deal of similar names and similar themes.

While most believed that Bungie would never add a direct connection between these two games (just as they did not for Marathon and Pathways Into Darkness), it is interesting to note that the Haunted Apiary puzzle seems to have added a substantial connection between the Marathon universe and the Halo universe. However, Bungie later stated that the Haunted Apiary was not directly written by them, although it was written using the Halo Story Bible, and its status as canon is still in question. On Bungie's own website Bungie.net, Bungie also provides the following: "Q. Is Marathon the prequel to Halo?", "A. No, Marathon is a separate story, with wholly different characters, story and gameplay." On the other hand, Alexander Seropian has stated: "I don't think you ever find that out, but it's the same character." Fans of both games will always be speculating on this theory.

The "Halo Story Bible" is the name given to a compendium in which is stored all available material which is considered canon for Bungie's Halo universe. It exists as a hard copy that Bungie presumably holds and is often used to design merchandise and products (most notably, the novels). More properly, the Halo Story Bible refers to the characters, events, and other happenings of the Halo universe held to be canon by Bungie itself, including much content that was not included in any novel or game. Material which is not in the Halo Bible - while perhaps entertaining - is considered to have no relevance to the Halo universe.

Another interesting fact about Bungie is their use of the number seven. Many of these are more obvious than others, including 343 Guilty Spark (73 = 343), 2401 Penitent Tangent (2+4+0+1=7 or 74 = 2401), Power of Seven (credited for the Marathon 2: Durandal and Marathon Infinity opening songs, and most of Oni's soundtrack), Pfhor Battle Group 7, and their official fan club, the 7th Column, but some of these are amusingly subtle: the Marathon colony ship was the hollowed out Deimos - first discovered in 1877 and first photographed in 1977. Also the fact that, in the Halo universe, there were originally seven Halos until the main protagonist destroyed one of them, scattered throughout the Milky Way galaxy.

Bungie as a company has developed its own complex and diverse mythology in addition to that in their games. Several of these include their 7 Step Plan for World Domination, The Shaft, the snack food Tijuana Mama (containing "mechanically separated chicken, pork hearts, and protein concentrate", and "300% Hotter!"), the decapitated head of a dog named Ling-Ling (Step Five in the World Domination plan), the entity that resides in their server named Disembodied Soul, the chronically drunk and aggressive webmaster of Bungie.net (known for dressing as a gorilla with a floppy yellow cowboy hat, as well as disappearing for months on "HTML research missions" and answering the E-Mails of grammatically impaired fans), a cheap absorbent toy fish called the Soffish, and The Cup, the prize at the Bungie Winter Pentathlon (a tradition has emerged that the losing team, out of envy, steals the cup rather than let the winning team touch it. In fact, several Bungie employees doubt the actual existence of The Cup, as it has been stolen and hidden so many times they have never laid eyes on it).

[edit] Bungie, Halo and Games Workshop

A few members of the gaming community have noticed that there are many similarities between Bungie and Games Workshop, although many of these are easily proven to be unintentional. Bungie's Marathon logo, prominent in their Marathon games and appearing in their later franchises, is strikingly similar to the symbol for the Tau race from the Warhammer 40k miniatures. In addition, it is often stated that the Spartans in Halo are remarkably similar to the Space Marines from Warhammer 40,000 in terms of armor and abilities.

[edit] Offshoot companies

Double Aught was a short-lived company comprised of several former Bungie team members. They were best known for creating the Infinity scenario Blood Tides of Lhowon and for the unreleased title Duality.

Wideload Games, creators of Stubbs the Zombie, is another company that came from Bungie. It is led by one of the two Bungie founders, Alex Seropian, and in fact 7 out of the 11 employees have previously worked at Bungie.

Giant Bite was founded by Hamilton Chu (former lead producer of Bungie Studios), and Michal Evans (former Bungie programmer), as well as Steve Theodore (former Valve employee) and Andy Glaister (former Microsoft Game Studios employee). They have not yet announced a project.[1][2]

Certain Affinity was announced December 13, 2006 as a new studio in Austin, Texas. Founded by Max Hoberman (the multiplayer design lead for Halo 2 and Halo 3, UI lead for Halo, and founder of Bungie’s Community Team), the team of 9 includes former Bungie employees (David Bowman & Chad Armstrong) as well as folks from Digital Anvil, Turbine Artifact, Origin, and other developers. They have since released the last two maps for Halo 2.[3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Developer Focus: Giant Bite Pursues Life After Halo.
  2. ^ Giant Bite - About.
  3. ^ New Halo 2 Maps revealed! - Bungie.net.

[edit] External links

Bungie websites
Games Workshop
Fan sites
Articles
Other
Bungie Studios video games
v • d • e
Non-series games Gnop! • Operation Desert Storm • Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete • Abuse • Oni • Pathways Into Darkness • Myth series • Pimps at Sea
Marathon series Marathon • Marathon 2: Durandal • Marathon Infinity
Halo series Halo: Combat Evolved • Halo 2 • Halo 3 • Halo Wars • Untitled Halo Project
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