The former Halo developer and the publisher of the Call of Duty series are set to launch a new IP next year; an action shooter by the name of Destiny, yet the contract between the parties is rather odd.
While mergers and deals to develop and distribute Intellectual properties, very few have the clauses and conditions similar to those in the contract between Halo developer, Bungie, and the Call of Duty publisher, Activision.
A number of the clauses and conditions which catch the eye deal with how much control Activision is exercising over the developer.
For starters, employees at Bungie will only get two Activision games as gifts on an annual basis, which incidentally is lower than what other publishers usually offer.
At the same time Activision will only distribute “1000 Destiny games” to Bungie “after their release to keep, play, share and promote the game.”
So apart from being a miser when it comes to showing some love for their new developers, Activision has also denied Bungie from owning the rights to the Destiny series until 2022. This means that the IP will remain Activision property until the four games and the four DLCs have been released.
At the same time, Bungie “must provide Activision with all Easter eggs it has spliced into the game” prior to the game’s release. However, at the same time Activision has to return this particular favour by informing Bungie of any Easter eggs in any of the games that the publisher releases.
At the same time, Bungie will not be allowed to develop any other action shooters until the time that the entire Destiny series has been released, including DLC.
In a move to protect cannibalizing of the genre, Valve, Epic and Gearbox have been “banned from developing Destiny or Comet conversions or adaptations.”
The first Destiny game is set to be an Xbox 360 exclusive and will be released in 2013, while rumours are also circulating that later instalments of the game will be appearing on next-gen consoles when they become available.
The four games will be released over a span of eight years, with DLCs being released every year the next instalment in the game is not.
More news on the story as and when it breaks.
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