Bungie not bothered by Activision's rep

Halo creator Bungie has dismissed concern that new publisher Activision's current negative reputation will impact upon its next game.

The US developer reckons it doesn't matter which publisher brings its super secret game to market.

"No, it doesn't concern us at all," community director Brian Jarrard told Eurogamer in a new interview.

"We've spoken quite a bit about this. Certainly it's not great the situation that it [Activision] is in.

"I don't know any more about it than anybody else does. We're game developers. We have a great plan. We're excited about our future and our new universe that we're going to bring to life.

"We have an awesome deal with those guys. Ultimately, I don't think it's going to matter who helps that game into the hands of gamers, other than we're happy to know Activision's got world-class publishing expertise across multiple platforms and they're going to be a great partner that's given us a great relationship and a great deal.

"So we're not too worried about it."

In April Activision and Bungie announced a mammoth 10-year publishing deal for the developer's next IP.

Under the terms of the agreement, Bungie retains the rights to whatever it's cooking.

The deal followed the high-profile sacking of Call of Duty creators Vince Zampella and Jason West, which sparked an outpouring of anger from gamers who felt Activision had unfairly treated Infinity Ward.

Gamers focused their attention on Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, a man Brutal Legend creator Tim Schafer likes very much.

Halo: Reach campaign designer Niles Sankey echoed Jarrard's comments.

"When we do look to the future, the nice thing about working at Bungie I'd say is unique to any of the jobs I've had in the industry is, the publishers know they can trust us.

"They know if they trust Bungie we will deliver a great game experience. We won't fail at that. That's earned us a lot of freedom to do what we feel is right.

"In the end I'm not worried at all. I'm sure the future's bright. I'll leave it at that."

Halo: Reach, Bungie's last Halo game, will release on 14th September. Johnny Minkley went hands-on and spilled his thoughts.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/bu...ctivisions-rep