Ask Paul: March 3 (Premium)

We’re in Mexico City for three weeks because life wasn’t chaotic enough already, so let’s kick off the weekend with some great reader questions.
Bungie, Halo, and the future
helix2301 asks:

What are your feelings on Bungie how did they break away from Microsoft I was wondering if you knew the history of it.

When this happened---and it was in 2007, far longer ago than I was thinking---I didn’t understand what they were doing. Knowing the history now, I wonder about this even more. Basically, Bungie was tired of making Halo and felt that the series had concluded, which makes sense when you realize that they were responsible for the only three truly excellent Halo titles (the first three): Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 3. (Well, and Halo 3: ODST, which was also very good but was a side-story.) But the team also wished to be independent again, and so they negotiated a deal with Microsoft to split off, with Microsoft keeping Halo and Bungie helping complete ODST.

That all sounds fine, but it’s the history since then that makes this narrative make a lot less sense. From a game creation perspective, Bungie of course went on to make Destiny, which is great and everything but, come on, it looks and feels exactly like Halo. It kind of begs the question of whether this game might have just been set in the Halo universe (like ODST) had they stayed at Microsoft. (Also, Bungie has released only two games, Destiny and Destiny 2, since leaving Microsoft 15 years ago? Come on. Destiny 2 is now 6 years old.)

Worse, Bungie signed an exclusive publishing partnership with Activision less than three years later, ended that deal early, and then was acquired by Sony in 2022. For a company that wanted to remain independent, they’ve rarely been truly independent. And it’s not like Sony is a better place for a game studio than Microsoft, unless of course you’re looking to be made console exclusive again.

Basically, Bungie’s decisions have never made sense to me.

Why was Sony allowed to buy them no questions asked but Microsoft is running into such an issue with Activision.

Bungie is a tiny studio compared to Activision Blizzard, and as noted, it only has two games in its stable, or really just one because Destiny 2 has pretty much replaced Destiny. Sony paid $3.6 billion for Bungie, a small fraction of the $69 billion Microsoft has offered for AB. (And it looks like Sony is about to buy Take-Two as well.)

What are your feelings on Halo infinite? I play it quite a bit while it's a great game and its fun I just don't see that big of a userbase compared to something like Destiny, Pubg, or Fortnite. You don't see many people streaming it on Twitch or YouTube. Do you think the userbase is there for sustainability?

I’m worried about Halo, and while I haven’t published this yet (and maybe won’t), I did start writing something called “Why Won’t Microsoft Set Halo Free?” that’s based on my opinion that 3...