When publisher Activision and Bungie signed their publishing deal for a decade during April 2010, fans of the iconic Halo franchise recognized that the developer’s involvement in the IP pointed towards an inevitable end. The studio formally announced exactly that when an early August date was set for the series to make its transition to Microsoft.
That day arrived this weekend with the Halo franchise officially completing its switch from Bungie to Microsoft and its internal studio, 343 Industries. Operating Bungie Pro via their website will now cease to exist, while the company’s responsibility of updating statistics and player files, as well as hosting user generated content has now fallen onto the shoulders of the Xbox 360 platform holder.
The transition away from Halo for Bungie began during the summer of 2011 as 343 Industries started to take over the helm of the brand that was evidenced via the confirmation of the developer working on Halo 4 during E3. 343 also worked on the campaign segment of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, a remake of the original Halo.
Yesterday however, the full transition was completed, confirmed by Bungie themselves who bid farewell to the series they created via a huge infographic detailing a multitude of statistics from previous iterations. With Halo being one of the IPs which spearheaded Microsoft‘s gaming console division, it was expected that players have cumulatively racked up impressive statistics [Click to enlarge]:
Bungie had formerly confirmed that “all existing historical Halo data” present on Bungie.net will remain on the website as long as the Internet is operational, in addition to the developer’s data storage systems remain intact.
As for the transition itself, all Halo support will now be handled by 343 Industries and Microsoft via Halo Waypoint which acts as the series’ hub for everything Halo.
Personally, my favorite moment in the series would be racking up triple kills in Halo 3‘s online multiplayer component which was made all that more satisfying via the narrator’s “triple kill” confirmation. Ranters, what are your most memorable experiences in any Bungie-developed Halo title?
343 Industries’ Halo 4 – the first title in a new trilogy – is currently scheduled for a release during fall, 2012.
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Source: Bungie.net, Image credit: Halo Wikia
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Farewell, Bungie. It’s been emotional.
Bungie, you’ve been one of the best game developers around, and your Halo franchise was the sole reason why I even got an original Xbox back in 2001 in the first place.
You will surely be missed as the one and only Halo developer.
Thank you!
Well bungie its been fun halo has been in my blood since i was 4 and my dads ran a famous clan and was well known in your community goodbye {tear}
Sticks, splatters, snipes, in that order. Dual wielding in halo 2 multiplayer was also awesome. 343 better not f!$@ this up.
* correction Microsoft/343 better not f!$@ this up.
So this isn’t an April Fools joke?
*sigh* Microsoft better not screw this up now…343i we are all watching you! Bungie, for making me pick up a controller on a “lame console game” *ducking head* I wish you all well and thank you for all the memories…ESPECIALLY the intro to the Ark in H3 and ALL of ODST and letting me fight the last fight as Six…those moments will stick with me forever. I may never even play Reach Campaign again…it was that good.