Bungie wants Blizzard-esque rep

Ex-Halo developer Bungie aspires to the same sort of reputation that World of Warcraft studio Blizzard currently enjoys in the gaming industry, according to studio veteran Marty O'Donnell.

Speaking in an interview with IndustryGamers, composer O'Donnell explained that it wanted to get to a place where the brand was synonymous with quality, noting that it wasn't interested in crowning 'superstar' individuals along the way.

"We have examples of that [in the industry] and they're out there but that hasn't been Bungie's way," he said.

"I don't think it's Blizzard's way; I don't think it's Valve's way. Blizzard and Valve are pretty successful companies and people know them. If there's a new Valve game I know I'm going to pick it up.

"People probably are not chomping at the bit for Activision's new game," he added. "They don't think about it that way. They're going to think about a studio who works at Activision and say, 'Where is that new game?'

"We sort of like that Blizzard is... Bungie is around exactly the same time Blizzard was and we've been friends with a lot of those Blizzards guys for years and we have a lot of respect for them and I don't think about individual rock stars in Blizzard as much as I think about Blizzard.

"If it's a Blizzard game it's going to be amazing. And we hope the same thing happens for Bungie."

After nearly a decade working on the Halo franchise for Microsoft, the US developer signed a 10 year deal with Activision last April to create a new multiplatform IP.

No announcement has been made as to exactly what it's working on, though recent speculation points towards a first person sci-fi MMO.