Bellevue, WA (PR Web) June 30, 2011 - Today Bungie launched the first phase of a new venture, Bungie Aerospace, created to help independent developers create brilliant mobile and social games. Bungie Aerospace will give studios the creative freedom and the resources they need, like access to the Bungie.net platform and an audience with the incredible Bungie community, to launch their entertainment experiences into orbit.
"Bungie has always been passionate about making and playing great games, regardless of platform," said Pete Parsons, Bungie COO. "Bungie Aerospace will allow us to explore game creation in multiple formats with some amazingly talented teams. Now that we've returned to our roots as an independent studio, we are in a position to launch Bungie Aerospace to support, foster, and elevate like-minded, independent developers."
Bungie Aerospace's first official partnership is with Seattle-based developer Harebrained Schemes, helmed by Jordan Weisman, the creative mind behind Halo 2's "I Love Bees" Alternate Reality Game, FASA Interactive, Wizkids, the MechWarrior and Shadowrun universes, and dozens of other creations and companies. The studio's first mobile gaming title, "Crimson," is set to launch this summer on iOS and Android devices.
More details about Harebrained Schemes' first mobile title developed under the Bungie Aerospace banner will be available in the weeks to come.
About Harebrained Schemes
Harebrained Schemes is a small group of wildly talented people, crammed into a closet, making whatever cool thing inspires us next.
About Bungie
Bungie was originally founded in 1991 with two goals: to develop games that combine brilliant storytelling, beautiful art, and deep gameplay, and then to sell enough copies of those games to fund the studio's real goal of world domination. For the last twenty years the studio created a series of genre-defining titles, including the Halo universe. Today, Bungie is fully focused on bringing the best gaming experiences to millions of gamers worldwide through the creation of their next big action universe.
More information about Bungie can be found at www.bungie.net. (This is where you are right now!)
More information about Bungie Aerospace can be obtained from http://www.bungieaerospace.com.
Q. ZOMG! What does it all mean?
It means that Bungie, through Bungie Aerospace, is partnering with a select group of independent developers to help them make their games great.
Q. So, it's not your next big game?
Nope. But you should still be excited. Great games are awesome, no matter who makes them.
Q. You really think you can compete with [INSERT NAME OF AWESOMELY SUCCESSFUL MOBILE/SOCIAL DEVELOPER HERE]?
The ultimate goal of Bungie Aerospace is to help independent developers create and showcase their games. That's the bar. Unless you also count the giant pile of cash we're all hoping to swim around in, but that seems really materialistic.
Q. Is this why you have been hiring mobile developers?
Actually, we're completely committed to building our next big action universe (noses to the grindstone and all that). Bungie Aerospace allows us to partner with small teams and help THEM make their kick ass games while we stay laser focused on ours. The mobile developers we've hired, and will hire, are working on secret stuff we can't talk about yet. Oh, and Bungie Mobile. (Thanks for all the downloads and 5-star ratings, by the way! There's more Bungie Mobile love on the way soon!)
Q. Cool. Let's do this. Give me a link to start the download!
Whoa! Not so fast. The first title from Harebrained Schemes, codenamed "Crimson," won't be out until this summer. When it's ready for download, we'll give you dates and details.
Got it? Good. We can't wait for you to ride Crimson's briny waves, but Harebrained Schemes' mobile game is just the first salty taste of what you can expect from Bungie Aerospace in the months ahead. Expect to hear more about Crimson, and some of our other partnership, soon.
Stay Tuned.