Xbox Boss Wishes Microsoft Had Kept Bungie
Phil Spencer, chief of Xbox, believes that Microsoft would have convinced Bungie, the Destiny developer, to stay under its umbrella of studios if the split had been in 2021 and not 2007.
Microsoft purchased Bungie in 2000 and requested that Combat Evolved be made into an exclusive launch title on the Xbox. You don’t need me to tell you the whole story. Bungie was thrilled that the game had been included in the Xbox launch title. Jason Jones, a co-founder of Bungie, said that the opportunity to work on Xbox was a chance to work for a company that takes the games seriously. “Before this, we were worried that someone would just want Mac ports or have no clue.”
Given the massive success of Halo Combat Evolved, it was a match made in Heaven. We also got two more Halo games by Bungie, which kept the series’ status. In 2007, however, it was revealed that the developer would no longer be working with Microsoft. While Halo was an IP that remained with Microsoft, Bungie retained a minority share in Bungie. Bungie then developed Destiny and Destiny HTML2. Bungie is like a shark. To survive, we must keep moving. Or we could end up like dolphins. Or manatees,” stated ones about the split.
It seems that Bungie was not able to reach its full creative potential. Speaking to Axios, Phil Spencer said that divergence was not always in the future. He said, “We’ve learned many things.” They had grand ambitions at the time. They had already sold their business for a set amount. They were amazed at what Halo had become. It’s almost like Microsoft got more from Halo’s success than Bungie.
“If you are saying, “Hey, I think that I have another one of those in my,” I understand. Spencer continued, “I want to give it another chance. I can see the appeal of being an independent company.” When Spencer was asked if Microsoft could alter the stars, he said that Bungie would have remained among its other studios if the publisher had been in a better position. “Could it be done today?” he asked. He replied, “I think we could.”
