Bungie and Activision. Jurnos: 1, TouYubers: 0

[isturbo1984]

Game "journalists" often get flak when it comes to certain topics, usually when it comes to trying to spin op-eds as factual articles. But gamers do the exact same thing. at least when it comes to recent news of the Activision/Bungie split. It seems to be there is a lot of misinformation being spread about the subject, mostly outside of gaming and tech websites. I've seen YongYea, ReviewTechUSA and even TheQuartering's own Jeremy spout nonsense and omit misinformation on a pretty big caveat.

So what am I talking about? Well, first Bungie was never owned by Activision. This wasn't a misconception or even something hidden from the public. At all. Youtubers decided to just get stupid when it came to this fact. Bungie had a 10-year contract that will expire in 2020. So what year is it currently? Oh, that's right 2019. So by my math that must mean... this is all "out of the blue," lol. And I don't understand why it is so surprising that Bungie got to keep Destiny. Did anyone really think that wouldn't be the case? Can someone please explain why Activision would keep the rights tot he Destiny IP, given the fact Bungie was working on the game when they were still with Microsoft. Hell, there is even a Destiny easter egg in Halo 3: ODST. Pretty sure Bungie getting to keep Destiny would have been part of the contract they signed. I mean, they left Microsoft so they can work on the project, did anyone really believe they would sign a contract and their IP over to the next publisher? Again, let's get retarded.

It just seems like another case of "Spin the Narrative." This time, coming from Youtubers and other random chuckleads that, well... just don't know what the fuck they are talking about. 9 out of 10 times its game j̶o̶u̶r̶n̶a̶l̶i̶s̶t̶s̶ activists. But this time, when there isn't a political axe to grind, it seems to be the "gamers."

[PriestTroit]

Hmm. I gotta disagree. Even though Activision has the final say in terms of retail sales and whatnot, that doesn't translate into their actual ownership of the product itself, so it's not exactly surprising Bungie gets to keep the IP. Also, I seem to remember reading an article saying that the contract was limited to 10 years, so I'm not sure how it can be seen as Bungie is ending the contract early. From what I understand about it all, Activision only has final say for sales-related things because they're the ones funding the game (I think that's publishers work... right?).

Like you said, though, I'm more interested in how the partnership with NetEase will affect things. If I remember right, they invested some serious cash into Bungie and struck some kind of partnership out of it, though I don't think anything has come of it yet. From what I know, NetEase is a Chinese company that manages other popular online games for the Chinese market and also developes or publishes a bunch of mobile games.... the big question in my mind is if that'll mean a Destiny mobile spin-off and if it'll just result in business as usual for the Destiny games themselves. Also the biggest question of them all... What about that new game Bungie is supposedly working on? Good grief.

[isturbo1984]

I admit, I'm still unclear about the contract being ended early, but I don't think it is. They said they will continue to support the game. Pretty sure there is some sort of "soft release" clause in a contract that lasts so long if they do not with to renew.--Giving Bungie a feasible exit such as this while they continue to support the game, which they are.

[Valkenr]

From the original agreement:

"The expected business model for the Products is a blend of retail packaged goods sales (although the parties acknowledge and agree that the future retail model for iterations of the Destiny Games may be via digital download rather than disk or packaged goods), subscriptions, downloadable content, value-added services and micro-transactions, the exact mix of which shall be determined by mutual agreement of Licensor and Activision."

"Activision will have control and final approval over all decisions relating to retail sales and promotions, discounts,
rebates, etc., provided that Activision shall meaningfully consult with Licensor on such decisions in advance."

It doesn't matter that they weren't "owned" by Activision, Activision basically had final say. Ending a contract early or splitting off is pretty similar from where we're all sitting.

And much of the agreement has to have changed since it was started, the 2020 reference is the launch of the last "comet" ($40 DLC, presumably), which was supposed to be for Destiny 4. The average gamer could have looked at the contract and knew: "There is no way this is happening, this release schedule is ridiculously tight." I didn't see anything about the contract ending, just the last major release would be in 2020, there was nothing about how much longer it would be supported(I may have missed something, its a big document). I could see the game going another 3 years from now with the original contract. Now, if they're still planning 4 games, its would have to change to a 20 year plan.

The part I'm more interested in is the new financial benefactor, and what agreements were made to get their money. I want to see that contract. Jeremy teased it, but didn't go into detail. Those are the details we need, to make sure its truly better than the Activision deal, and not selling their soul to a different devil.

But, I agree they could have made a smaller deal about Bungie retaining the IP rights, those were never in question. After Halo, I'm not surprised they required retention of ownership in the Activision contract.