343 Industries “versus” Bungie Studios

What’s Happened

Many Halo fans knew of the news as soon as it hit. Bungie was no longer signed with Microsoft and was probably going to stop making Halo games sooner or later and that’s exactly what happened.

Bungie: The Start of Xbox

Bungie actually did not start out making games for Xbox. The Xbox original was not even out at the time of their arrival. Instead, they made games for the Macintosh desktop.

Some games include Marathon (a FPS) and Myth (strategy game).

These were very successful and foreshadowed Bungie’s success in the gaming industry. Microsoft acquired Bungie in 2000 right after Bungie had released a preview of a third person shooter for Windows and Macintosh: Halo.

Microsoft then announced that Halo would be an Xbox exclusive. They chose this over an offer from Activision and of course Bungie hit big with Halo and sold 6.5 million copies and really just became the Xbox go-to game and this led to Halo 2, 3, 3:ODST, and Reach and were all very successful games and some set records in the entertainment industry. Shortly after Halo 3‘s release, Bungie split off from Microsoft and released their final two Halo games.

343 Industries: The Halo Helper

343 was established by Microsoft in 2007. They were there to oversee the Halo franchise because Bungie had split off from Microsoft. 343 is responsible for all halo servers, the Halo: Waypoint website, the last two map packs for Halo: Reach, and the popular Halo Anniversary game.

But their big hit? Halo 4. 343 really put themselves out on the market with this one. They took the Halo series and made it better than it was which really makes a statement towards Bungie. They are now working on a Mobile/Desktop game: Halo: Spartan Assault which looks promising for a bored day on the road and a new Halo game for Xbox One with not much news behind it except that it comes out next year.

Now

Bungie is now in an agreement with Activision and will be releasing the game Destiny. This game will be released on Xbox 360 and One and Playstation 3 and 4 and looks like a whole new style from Bunige. Well it’s still all futuristic and stuff. Maybe it isn’t so much a new look but it looks like a Halo on super steroids with a little bit of borderlands feeling in it in my opinion and no launch date has been announced but I’m sure it will be coming out later in the year.

The Competition

Well these two businesses aren’t really competing against each other. Almost like they have nothing to do with each other. If you noticed at E3, they really just acted as if the other didn’t exist, which isn’t bad, but I figured something would’ve been said about one another because they’re basically trying to make the same kind of game but there was nothing.

So we will have to see if Bungie leaving the Halo series and making a whole new game is better for them and if 343 can handle the hype that Bungie has put behind Halo for years. Their first was good but can they keep it up?