Halo creator Bungie sets its sights on Facebook, mobile games (and making piles of cash)

It almost goes without saying, but it's almost stupid to not consider mobile and social these days as a game developer. So--surprise--another game creator has entered the mobile/social space, the creators of the Halo franchise, Bungie. The ex-Microsoft developer revealed to Develop today in an interview that its Bungie Aerospace publishing division will focus solely on independent mobile and social game projects.

Its first game is called Crimson (pictured), the same as its previously revealed mobile tech for cross-platform games, and it looks like it will launch on iPad by the looks of its website. Still, no details have been revealed about the game other than Harebrained Schemes, a mobile games developer, is working on it.

During his interview with Develop, Bungie COO Pete Parsons revealed that it's about time Bungie uses its expertise as a developer to enter the publishing realm, but also joked, "Well, it's like every other developer publisher relationship where the developer does the work and the publisher takes the credit and the money... I'm kidding of course."

Parsons went on to say that he sees Bungie's deal with Harebrained Schemes as a partnership rather than a publishing deal. But more importantly, Parsons alluded to a network that will exist across all Bungie games and all the platforms it develops (and publishes) on. It's designed to track analytics for all of its games, provide united leader board services and to be deployed through both Facebook and Apple's Game Center. (So, Bungie is lookin' at Facebook, eh?)

Check out the full interview here, where the Parsons and Harebrained Schemes head Jordan Weisman go into detail regarding the risks, rewards and intrigue of mobile/social game development. We'll be here, waiting for the imminent Halo Facebook game--make our dream a reality, guys?

Angry Birds creator wants to publish indie games, Rovio exec says

It makes you wonder: Could Rovio be just a little bit scared that it might not strike gold again? Chief marketing officer for the creator of Angry Birds Peter Vesterbacka (pictured) said to Develop in an interview that the developer is planning to open a publishing label.

"We have some plans for this area, but not ready to announce yet," Vesterbacka told Develop. "If we do something in the publishing area, you can expect it to be a bit different."

However, it seems as if the maker of your favorite annoyed avians wants to keep things 1.) indie (independently developed) and 2.) mobile. According to Develop, Rovio has already approached several mobile game studios to form a foundation for the new business. While the Finnish company's other ventures have arguably been leaps of faith--cookbooks ... seriously?--it certainly has experience in the publishing business.

Well, at least from the other end. Angry Birds made it to the US in 2009 though Chillingo, a mobile games publisher that is now owned by EA. Of course, Rovio was able to back out of deal once the acquisition occurred, but the company is currently in another publisher relationship with Twentieth Century Fox, through which it nabbed the rights to create Angry Birds Rio.

And honestly, it would be a no-brainer for an indie game developer to team up with Rovio. For one, if the company claims to be worth at least as much as Zynga, it at least has considerable resources to offer. And seriously, could you go wrong with a team that has somehow successfully hyped up slingshotting birds into pigs for two years running? I think not.

[Via TouchArcade]

What do you think of Rovio potentially becoming an indie games publisher? Would you try a new iPhone game just knowing it was published by the creator of Angry Birds? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment