Bungie, a 30-year success story

Bungie is without a doubt one of the big companies that can be found in the video game industry. And it is that, the American company is the creator of two titanic sagas as they are Halo Yes Destiny. However, before achieving the glamor and success of these titles, the company had truly humble beginnings. To talk about the creation of this company, we have to go back to 1991. Year when Alex Seropian and Jason Jones met at the University of Chicago. After forming a great friendship during these university years, the two would found Bungie Software and begin to develop a company which today continues to reap successes.

It should be noted that although both took their first steps in the industry (Minotaur and Gnop!), they weren’t great experts in video game development. Although it is true that Jason Jones had more knowledge than Seropian, and would be a fundamental pillar when transferring ideas into the world of video games. With this inexperience, the newly formed studio would embark on the adventure with its first title. Operation: Desert Storm. A tank war game, where the legendary Operation Desert Storm has been relaunched.

First steps

Operation: Desert Storm, it will be released on the Macintosh because it was the system Jones controlled the best. The game only managed to sell 2,500 units. An understandable figure given that it was a self-published game. Building on company foundation, Seropia would convince Jones to reissue Minotaur. However, success will take a long time to come and this relaunch was barely close to 2,500 units again. Even with those moderate sales, the team had considered doing a remake of Minotaur in 3D, benefiting greatly from the success of Wolfenstein. However, the company gave up on the idea and started working on a brand new title, Paths to Darkness.

This title tried to mix the adventure and action genres, while also inviting the player to fight against all kinds of creatures, while trying to stop a powerful god who wanted to destroy the world. An interesting premise that would receive a good reception from critics and gamers alike, ranking as the company’s first hit. In fact, thanks to the profits they made, they were able to afford to move to an office in Chicago and hire their first employees.

This is where Bungie’s path to success would begin. Since, after this launch, the company would prepare a new saga, Marathon. Developed exclusively for Mac, we come across a first-person shooter, but which, unlike many of its competitors, contained a great narrative load.

From Marathon and Halo

If we focus on Marathon, we will find some of the bases that have accompanied the company to date. First of all, the game is set in the future, more specifically in the year 2794. At that point, the Marathon ship sends a distress signal and we, a security employee, come to the rescue. Upon reaching the ship, we discover that an alien race known as the Pfhor is trying to enslave the settlers who inhabit the ship. However, that’s not all, on the ship, we will discover the presence of three artificial intelligences, one of them being a totally unexpected problem. As we see, it is very easy to find reminiscences between this launch and the future Halo.

Thus, the company would develop three parts of the saga, the last of them being the first to reach Windows and becoming a success that would catapult Bungie. After this trilogy, the company will step back and focus on other genres, with the main one chosen being real-time strategy. Myth, it would be the fruit of this new path taken by Bungie. An interesting strategy game which has gotten up to three installments and which has gained some recognition by using some novelties in the genre, like its fully three-dimensional camera.

However, that was all about to change at Bungie when Steve Jobs himself joined them at the Macworld exhibition in 1999. An event which the team took advantage of to present a new project, Halo. A game that was initially supposed to be in the third person, which would be released on Mac and Windows.

The emergence of Microsoft

Due to the success the company was starting to rack up, many large companies began to look directly to Bungie. One of these companies was Microsoft, the team was aware that the Halo he was really ambitious and had a lot of potential. This is why the company went on the offensive and acquired Bungie in June 2000. This purchase enabled Redmon to ensure that Halo It would be an exclusive title and its brand new console; Xbox.

This is how one of the most recognized alliances in the video game world will begin. And it is that, the launch of Xbox cannot be understood without Halo. The Bungie project takes shape and becomes a success that will monopolize the covers and the marketing of Microsoft. From that moment, a successful career will begin which will lead Bungie to be directly linked to Microsoft until 2007. Year in which the company will be independent again. However, they would continue to collaborate for a few more years, until in 2010 the company abandoned the saga of Halo.

The star saga of the company had accumulated until this moment 5 deliveries where we had followed the adventures of the Master Chief and other characters of the universe. Within these launches, we can highlight the deliveries of Halo 2 and 3, which broke collection records. Increase in case of Halo 3 over $ 170 million in its first 24 hours. Real madness.

On another side, Halo brought with it a mass phenomenon that has survived to this day with the recent launch of Infinite halo by 343i. However, that wasn’t the end for Bungie.

Fate esperaba

After definitively dissociating itself from its favorite saga, the company set to work on a new and ambitious project, Destiny. A title that continued to take the exalted gunplay of the saga Halo, but coming now to a title with a very different approach, in addition the team would find a gigantic partner who would support them in this new stage, Activision. In addition, destiny, came to our consoles with the goal of becoming a game that lasts a really long time, in fact, at first it was said to last up to ten years. Indeed, the approach that the company would adopt would be that of an MMORPG, destiny in a video game for the service. That is to say, a title that would continue to receive content regularly, thus increasing its playability experience. Thus, in September 2014, we were able to start taking advantage of this adventure which, over time, has grown in size.

With all that, destiny built a huge legion of fans who could enjoy a huge amount of content until 2017, the year its sequel would arrive. Destiny 2, would quickly become a hit, being the second best-selling game of the year, behind the gigantic Call of Duty. On top of that, the game has repeatedly topped the sales charts in the UK and North America. The arrival of Destiny 2It was the continuation of this new saga and a new opportunity to solve some of the most criticized aspects of the first installment, like its history.

Therefore, Destiny 2 continues to be a backbone for Bungie. And, the company continues to actively support this launch with new extensions and additional content. In reality, the company didn’t want to miss the opportunity to celebrate its 30th anniversary with an in-game event, which recalls several of the great moments of the company. Appearing again the classic weapons of Halo and designs inspired by Marathon. And to talk about Bungie is to talk about 30 years of video game history.