Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple History: Jobs 'Raged' Over Microsoft's 2000 Acquisition of 'Halo' Developer Bungie
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Sony and MS have both put their short-term eggs into hopping on the Motion Controller bandwagon (w/ Move & Kinect). Most conservative industry estimates I've read put both companies over 2 years away from another console release.
The story doesn't really add up. Jobs has never been big on gaming, certainly not Mac gaming. Apple developers helped Mac game developers in their spare time, because Apple didn't offer much more for them than with the Select & Premium Developer support offerings.
At the time of the Bungie sale however, computer gaming was still way more important than console gaming. If Apple at that time would offer better support for Mac gaming in terms of graphics drivers, better graphics cards, help to developers or even buying a big game developer, Apple's Mac market share could have been way bigger than it's now. It was one of the biggest reasons people skipped the Mac at that time. Reasons for not having a Mac become smaller and smaller, but there is still a lot of mostly enterprise software these days, that only runs on Windows. The benefits of Mac OS X over Windows have become bigger and bigger. Windows 7 closes the gap a little but is still suffering from the support for legacy crap. Windows 8 should fix that and should be Microsoft's Mac OS X. If that's 10.0 or 10.6 is yet to be seen though.
At the time of the Bungie sale however, computer gaming was still way more important than console gaming. If Apple at that time would offer better support for Mac gaming in terms of graphics drivers, better graphics cards, help to developers or even buying a big game developer, Apple's Mac market share could have been way bigger than it's now. It was one of the biggest reasons people skipped the Mac at that time. Reasons for not having a Mac become smaller and smaller, but there is still a lot of mostly enterprise software these days, that only runs on Windows. The benefits of Mac OS X over Windows have become bigger and bigger. Windows 7 closes the gap a little but is still suffering from the support for legacy crap. Windows 8 should fix that and should be Microsoft's Mac OS X. If that's 10.0 or 10.6 is yet to be seen though.
I don't think Nintendo or Microsoft would be the slightest bit scared of that happening.
It wasn't about him caring for games, it was about control. He didn't have control over something he wanted, and that's what made him mad.
That would certainly explain the disparity we've seen between keynote presentations ("We're all about gaming here at Apple! Hyuk!") and then nothing really happening. The wording of the quote (yeah, it was weird, we had to go do this thing over at an Apple show) suggests that they really didn't care about the outcome or have a whole lot personally invested into it. It sounds like a teenager talking to his buddy about that lame-o social his parents made him go to.
I get the distinct impression that megalomaniacs don't like experiencing a taste of their own medicine
DUDE! Sort out your Multiquote!
As I said above, Marathon II was the best game EVER on the Mac in my opinion...miles ahead of the overhyped Doom II, for instance...
Oops, now I feel really old, having played those games back in 1996 during my early Law School years (usually after I came back from dance clubs at 4am)...good times indeed
As a light to moderate gamer my PS3 is collecting dust. I really only use it to play blu-ray movies. The Wii is used when I have friends over and the Xbox is my normal gaming machine.
Ah ... Durandal (Marathon II). Even my uber-geek anti-Apple friends jumped at the chance to play networked games of Durandal. I do miss those days.
As I recall, the story goes something along the lines of right before Microsoft bought out Bungie, they released the code for Marathon as Open Source, subsequently ticking Microsoft off to no end (at the time, at least).
As I recall, the story goes something along the lines of right before Microsoft bought out Bungie, they released the code for Marathon as Open Source, subsequently ticking Microsoft off to no end (at the time, at least).
That's indeed true...the whole trilogy was released as open source right before the conclusion of the negotiation (that's why projects such as Aleph One came to fruition as well)..a fine last move by Bungie. But I maintain my point: Durandal was WAY ahead of any other game out there (and yes, it was better than both Marathon I and Infinity).
I beg to differ.
Nintendo already views Apple as a rival in the mobile gaming market, and now they'd be looking at the possibility of an Apple-controlled Sony pushing OS updates to the PS3 to grant iDevice compatability or iTunes Music Store / App Store access. That'd cause more than some worry for the Big N.
And MS? They're running slightly ahead of Sony in console install base (close to neck and neck in sales, recently), but don't think for a minute they'd be thrilled about Cupertino taking control of the PS3.
if memory serves me right, at the time of their assimilation, bungie was working on halo, myth and oni. i remember seeing at macworld in jan 99 oni being played as a multiplayer, a feature that dropped and one can only think it was due to m$ forcing them to concentrate solely on halo.
first bungie game i played was pathways into darkness, a classic and one of the creepiest games ever. the whole marathon series rocked and myth 1 and 2 were well ahead of their time.
first bungie game i played was pathways into darkness, a classic and one of the creepiest games ever. the whole marathon series rocked and myth 1 and 2 were well ahead of their time.
From what I understand Macsoft's involvement came after Bungie was bought by Microsoft, as they were the company responsible for most of the Microsoft titles that later made it to the Mac.
Bungie had been working on Halo for several years and was pretty much a Mac only developer, and I don't believe they had ever released anything with Macsoft. Bungie had developed such titles as Myth 1 and 2, as well as Marathon, and Oni. Halo was first unveiled publicly during Macworld as a Mac only title. Halo was pretty much hailed as the return of gaming for the Mac, and was likely going to be one of the first titles for Mac OS 10.0. Then Microsoft came and bought them just a few months from release.
Rumor has it much of the game was actually retooled once Microsoft purchased Bungie, as originally it was believed the game was going to have several 3rd person perspective type missions similar to Myth 2. The game was always going to be a first person shooter, but it was rumored Microsoft demanded it only really be a 1st person shooter when not using a vehicle.
It was a sad day in the Mac universe when Microsoft bought Bungie, and it essentially put the Mac in the dark ages when it came to gaming. I really do not believe Steve Jobs or Apple ignored the gaming market, you have to realize that in 1999 Apple's active user base was estimated at a mere 4 million, with only 20 million Macs out in the wild (to put in perspective where they are today, last quarter Apple sold 3.8 million Macs). Apple had to focus on staying alive, when Steve Jobs took the helm the company was less then 60 days from bankruptcy. They literally didn't have the money to buy Bungie or support the Mac gaming community (which honestly, there was maybe 3 or 4 major gaming companies for the Mac at the time).
I don't post on these forums often, so forgive me if i am being a bit out there but just a thought, Bill Gates was the CEO of Microsoft back in 2000 when the acquisition took place yet the article quotes Steve Jobs as being angry at Steve Balmer. Mismatch of facts or unreliable source, Thoughts?
yep, I remember that.
I remember watching Steve Jobs' keynote where he said "We're starting to see a lot of great games coming back to the mac!", and then brought the Bungie game developer on stage to show off Halo. This was soon after Steve Jobs had returned to Apple and saved the company with the first, bondi-blue iMac (which I got for my first year at college!).
Halo was supposed to come out on the mac first (or at least at the same time as its Windows release). Instead it came out on Xbox, didn't come out for Windows until later, and didn't show up in a mac version until something like a year after the xbox release.
I remember watching Steve Jobs' keynote where he said "We're starting to see a lot of great games coming back to the mac!", and then brought the Bungie game developer on stage to show off Halo. This was soon after Steve Jobs had returned to Apple and saved the company with the first, bondi-blue iMac (which I got for my first year at college!).
Halo was supposed to come out on the mac first (or at least at the same time as its Windows release). Instead it came out on Xbox, didn't come out for Windows until later, and didn't show up in a mac version until something like a year after the xbox release.
Very interesting indeed.
However perhaps the bigger story is whatever happened to MacSoft? This article suggests they were the result of this deal. And for a while they were indeed the conduit of Microsoft games being ported to the Mac. But they basically completely vanished about three years ago (I think Age of Empires 3 was their last port) without explanation. They even listed Unreal Tournament 3 for most of that time but it obviously never came. I even remember reading something about the CEO of MacSoft (Peter Tamte) claiming they were about to secure a large amount of funding that would enable them to bring some really exciting things the Mac.
So whatever happened to them?
http://www.destineerstudios.com/macsoftgames/
-PN
However perhaps the bigger story is whatever happened to MacSoft? This article suggests they were the result of this deal. And for a while they were indeed the conduit of Microsoft games being ported to the Mac. But they basically completely vanished about three years ago (I think Age of Empires 3 was their last port) without explanation. They even listed Unreal Tournament 3 for most of that time but it obviously never came. I even remember reading something about the CEO of MacSoft (Peter Tamte) claiming they were about to secure a large amount of funding that would enable them to bring some really exciting things the Mac.
So whatever happened to them?
http://www.destineerstudios.com/macsoftgames/
-PN
Really, if Jobs had wanted the Mac to be a viable gaming platform, he could have made it happen a long time ago with a few phone calls and some minor design-philosophy changes to their products. They just didn't see a point to doing it, and (I'm sure) enjoyed adding to the margins on hardware sales by putting crap graphics cards in their machines for the majority of this decade.
It's hard to say the Bungie-MS deal put Mac Gamnig in the "dark ages" when most of the problems with Mac Gaming have been self-inflicated by Apple.
Microsoft doesn't own Bungie any longer. They haven't owned them since late 2007. They just had an agreement that a few Halo releases would continue to be exclusively on XBOX.