1UP: Is Bungie now contractually obliged to give Microsoft first-look on future titles, Halo-related or otherwise?
Jarrard: We aren't at liberty to discuss the specifics of this business arrangement but suffice it to say that we look forward to continuing to work with Microsoft as a great partner and world class publisher.
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3163440
WN: One of the details that was going around before the official announcement was that Microsoft was going to have right of first refusal on the games Bungie was making — or is it the case that Microsoft Game Studios is the publisher from here on out?
FO: Microsoft Game Studios is our publisher for two projects that we’ve announced, and beyond that I can’t talk about the details of the deal, because we are a privately held LLC, but on the other hand Microsoft is a publicly held company, so they might be able to talk about those details in more depth than we can.
Its unlikely that it would be a limited time deal that would expire in 3 yrs as that would be to short of time for Microsoft to exercise its benefits, either GameInformer got it wrong or Microsoft didn't want the new game. Well, theres other possibilities I guess: Bungie paid MSFT to get out of the deal( would likely be in the $50+ million range); the new game may not be out for another 2 yrs pushing it out of a 5 yr deal; or the deal was for a fixed number of games and bungie has hit that mark, maybe the next bungie game is still exclusive? and the new IP from this deal is going to be down the road.
