Has hell frozen over? Not really, but you can hear the faint cries of gamers all around the world that are against Activision. It’s been announced that Bungie, the guys behind the mega blockbuster franchise, Halo, has partnered with Activision, the guys behind the firings of Infinity Ward’s studio heads, Zampella and West (creators of the Call of Duty franchise), thus leading to more developers and designers resigning from Infinity Ward. Bungie will still be an independent development company and will continue to own their IP, while Activision will have exclusive, worldwide rights to publish and distribute all future Bungie games based on the new IP across multiple platforms and devices.

Bungie’s alliance with Activision comes after the Bungie and Microsoft split up of 2007, on which Microsoft still owns Halo, and will help Activision broaden its portfolio with a new franchise from a studio whose games have sold more than 25 million units worldwide. To date, Bungie’s Halo games have raked in around $1.5 billion in revenues, according to The NPD Group.

“We chose to partner with Activision on our next IP because of their global reach, multi-platform experience and marketing expertise,” said Harold Ryan, President of Bungie. “From working together over the past nine months on this agreement, it is clear that Activision supports our commitment to giving our fans the best possible gaming experiences.”

“Bungie is one of the premier studios in our industry and we are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to work with their talented team over the next decade,” stated Thomas Tippl, Chief Operating Officer of Activision Blizzard. “Bungie has developed some of the most compelling and successful games, multiplayer experiences and thriving fan communities, and this alliance underscores our long-standing commitment to foster the industry’s best creative talent. Our unprecedented partnership with Bungie will enable us to broaden our pipeline of exciting new games as we continue to strengthen our industry position and pursue long-term growth opportunities.”

And with this, I leave you guys a picture of Master Chief learning about Call of Duty.

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