What Are Bungie Up To?

Bungie parted company with Microsoft last year in an announcement that some saw as shocking. The revered developer of the Halo games (except Wars) passed that franchise off to 343 Industries and signed a publishing deal with Activision which many saw as the move towards multiplatform console development. There have also been several persistant rumours that Bungie are being courted by EA via that publisher’s Partners program.

There hasn’t been any news from the Washington based studio for some time now, other than the assertion that they will not be attending this year’s E3 show in Los Angeles. Well, now Gamespot has uncovered some interesting notices.

It seems that a new company has been incorporated, called Bungie Aerospace Corporation, by the Bungie President, Harold Ryan. That company has then filed a trademark for something called Crimson.

Obviously, at this early stage, it’s impossible to know exactly what Crimson could be but there are one or two clues in the trademark filing. Firstly, it’s described as “computer game software downloadable from a global computer network” which implies that it’s a downloadable title, rather than a full disc release. Next, there’s reference to it being “Computer game software for use on mobile and cellular phones” which implies something like an AppStore release.

Factor in the suggestions from Bungie, earlier this year, that their next project wasn’t too far in style from their previous work and this has led some to speculate that Bungie might be working on some sort of FPS with MMO style elements and a persistant trading post via mobiles. Something like Borderlands but with loot that you can trade via an App? Sounds very exciting.

The often derided mobile phone market is hugely profitable and, aside from a couple of notable exceptions, it hasn’t really been tapped into by big name console developers. Is Bungie Aerospace Corporation and entirely new wing of the Halo developer that will focus solely on mobile applications?

It’s a bit early for too much speculation but one thing is for sure: Bungie are definitely up to something.

Source: Gamespot