Bungie, the developers of the "Halo" series of games, plan to develop a multi-title series of games, known as "Destiny," which will be published by Activision.
Those facts were revealed in a lawsuit between Activision and Infinity Ward co-founders Jason West and Vincent Zampella, as reported by the L.A. Times, which also printed the contract between Bungie and Activision in its entirety.
The contract, dated 2010, indicates that the first game in the Destiny series was scheduled to be exclusively released for the Xbox 360 and the next-generation console, referred to in the contract as the "Xbox 720", at an undisclosed time. Subsequently, the first Destiny game would be released for the PlayStation 3 sometime later, specifically the fall of 2014. The contact notes that Bungie would not be required to ship Destiny #1 in the fall of 2013 on both the PS3 and Xbox 360 platforms, indicating that that may have been the official ship date for the 360 at the time.
The contract defines the games as "massively-multiplayer-style (i.e. client-based mission structures with persistent elements), sci-fantasy, action-shooter games".
While the first Destiny game would be console-only, the second Destiny game will be released simultaneously for both the PlayStation 4, Xbox 360/720, and the PC, the contract says.
In addition, Bungie would be required to ship at least two major downloadable content packs, each of which are referred to as "Comet" within the contract. Additional DLC releases could be developed for each of the games, as well.
The contract also discusses a sequel to the classic game "Marathon".
Bungie, of course, developed the famous "Halo" series for Microsoft, a trilogy that culminated in "Halo: Reach". A fourth game in the Halo series is due in November.
Bungie signed a 10-year deal with Activision in 2010 prior to the release of Halo: Reach. Halo 4 was developed by 343 Industries, which last year lost creative director Ryan Payton, who left to form his own company.
Bungie semi-officially confirmed the new games. According to the contract, the team will receive a percentage of royalties plus a bonus if the games achieves a 90 or above on metacritic.com or gamerankings.com."So, yeah. While we're not ready to show you what we've been working on, we can reconfirm that we are hard at work on our new universe," the team posted Monday night. "We can't wait for you to see it.
"See you starside in 2013," the team added.
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