The original stalwarts of the series since 2001, the Seattle-based studio will transfer control on all things John-117 to the Microsoft first-party studio by that date. However, it will continue to keep historic data “for as long as the Internet and Bungie’s data storage systems remain functional.”

“Bungie will no longer be able to update game stats and player service records, to host new user generated content, or to operate the Bungie Pro service. All currently supported, Bungie-developed Halo titles will be impacted by this change,” a post on the developer’s site reads.

“Any replacement functionality, and all future Halo support, will be provided by Microsoft and 343 Industries via Halo Waypoint at http://halo.xbox.com.”

It continued: “Thanks for making the Halo-era version of Bungie.net more successful than we could have possibly imagined. You complete us.”

Bungie is working on a multiplaform brand new universe with Activision, which is still to be announced, while 343 is working on a new trilogy of Halo games, beginning with Halo 4 this holiday season following the release of Combat Evolved Anniversary last year.

Red 5, speaking in a statement to Shack, said it was pulling the current online beta of the game for 24 hours, adding it was cancelling its appearance at this year’s E3 due to support by organiser ESA for SOPA and sister bill PIPA.

“We are extremely disappointed in this misguided legislation. We are also ashamed of the ESA for supporting a bill which is clearly not in the best interests of gamers or the game industry,” said E5 CEO Mark Kern.

“This bill, and it’s sister bill, Protect IP, will shut down live streaming, shout casting, user generated content and have a chilling effect on game innovation and social media.”

He went on to add: “We issue a call to all our industry peers, including developers, publishers and game press, to join us in letting the ESA know they do not represent our views on this issue, and strongly oppose SOPA and PIPA.”

Destructoid has also said it’ll take part in the blackout on Monday.

“On January 18th members of the House Committee will be discussing PIPA/SOPA in Washington, D.C. and, like many of our friends, Destructoid will be blacking-out in protest of legislation that would allow DNS and Search Engine Blocking,” said founder Niero Gonzalez.

“If you think this blog post is annoying and not about videogames, wait until you can’t reach our site at all because you won’t have the power to decide what websites you can and cannot reach.”

Meanwhile, Torchlight developer Runic Games has come out and said it’s firmly against SOPA as well.

“We at Runic Games oppose the SOPA/PIPA legislation and we encourage you to do the same,” read a forum topic on the matter on the developer’s forums.

Mojang head Markus Persson has also announced via Twitter that Minecraft.net and Mojang.com will be taken offline on January 18 in protest of the bill.

Nvidia, Bungie, GoG.com have also come out against the bill, with the Halo studio stating it could “cripple the kind of games we love to create.”

Epic, 38 Studios, THQ and MLG are just some of the firms which have previously spoke out against the SOPA bill as it is currently written.

The US senate is expected to vote on the bill and PIPA once it returns from recess on January 24.

You can pick up the game here. The game itself is free, but offers a few bonuses via in-app-purchase like HD textures. This isn’t just a slipshod port either. It offers GameCenter support as well as support for Joypad.

Thanks, Shack.

When you hear “Bungie,” what do you think of? Gaming’s favorite green-armored giant? The most potent pistol ever to prompt a kicking, screaming, cat-flinging rage quit? That plastic replica plasma rifle that no one can ever know you own?

Regardless, for most people, even “an elastic cord” springs to mind before “the next great bastion for interesting indies.” And yet, with its Aerospace program, Bungie has a very real chance of becoming an incredibly large fish in that ever-expanding pond. Already, the first fruit of its labors, the Jordan-Weisman-fronted Crimson: Steam Pirates, has taken iTunes by storm with a mix of excellent writing and, well, pirates – which have been known to take things by storm.

But Bungie can’t afford to rest on its laurels. Aerospace may have gotten it in on the indie scene’s ground floor, but staying there requires both an open mind and the ability to stick to your guns. For a developer that – in the past – has gained a reputation for simply sticking to guns, that’s a bit of a tough sell. After all, household name shooter to no-name indies? That’s a pretty big leap.

That in mind, I sat down with Bungie Aerospace portfolio producer Bernie Yee to discuss Aerospace’s driving philosophies, plans for the future, creativity’s place in both indie and big-budget gaming, game-specific social networks, and tons more.

VG247: When you’re picking out a game to highlight for Aerospace, what specific qualities – beyond, well, quality – do you look for?

Bernie Yee: I think there are a couple things we think about. One, we have a very loyal fan following. We want to bring games to them we think they’re gonna like. Bungie’s mantra is that we make games we want to play, and Aerospace is gonna publish games we want to play. We don’t all sit around and play sci-fi FPSes all day. There’s a variety of experiences we like.

“Something we really want our Aerospace games to have is a unique point-of-view.”

But I think something we really want our Aerospace games to have is a unique point-of-view that tries to do something differently and/or in a polished fashion. So when people see a Bungie game, I think they expect a requisite level of polish – a thinking behind what the last ten percent of the game is gonna be.

I could look at games that I think are really great now. Like, Bastion is great. Spy Party’s going to be great. And those are games that are driven by a very clear point-of-view. They’re not just trying to do, like, a physics sandbox. And they’re also really driven to refine the main mechanics so they’re polished. Bastion did it. Chris Hecker from Spy Party’s doing it.

Yeah, he’s really doing it. I’m not even sure I remember when that game was announced – possibly because I wasn’t born yet.

And I wish he’d just ship the game already! [Laughs.] But I think those are the kinds of teams we want to work with: people who really believe in the vision and will do what it takes to get it to the point where it becomes a game that everybody at Bungie really wants to play. So that’s our goal.

So how’d the collaboration on Crimson: Steam Pirates come about? Who approached who? And were the words “Pimps at Sea” ever thrown around?

We’re big Jordan Weisman fans, and the studio’s known Jordan for a while because he was head creative director at Microsoft Game Studios. I myself am a huge Battletech fan, and a lot of people at the studio are huge steampunk fans.

Jordan’s been interested in this space for a while. He put together a small team in Seattle. We wanted to do something with Aerospace quickly, and we knew – again – that Jordan has a unique point-of-view. The narrative, the tongue-in-cheek humor, the steampunk theme. And we decided to just do it, right? We thought it was a good game to play, and we thought it’d be a great collaboration for us.

What sort of influence does Bungie end up having over the direction of the indies it decides to bring aboard for Aerospace?

Well, those three games I mentioned [as examples of excellent indies] – Braid, Bastion, and Spy Party – were all done by very small groups. But they all had a high-degree of triple-A experience. They know what it’s like to ship a game under high pressure and scrutiny. They know that the first draft is never good enough.

So one of the things I think we’re gonna bring – even to teams that have never done this before – [is triple-A experience]. I recently looked at a project I thought was very interesting, but some of the team had never done a game before. So what we’d like to bring is that experience – the audio, the visuals, the art design, game design, writing, technology, backend innovation. All the things that our team has experience in, we’d like to bring to an Aerospace external partner and help them polish and finish their game that last ten percent.

Look at Plants vs Zombies, right? It’s super polished. PopCap is so good that there are plenty of little companies that try to copy their games, and they still can’t do it. The reason is that polish. You don’t get it just from looking and copying it. You play it, you think about it, and you refine it. That’s the polish we want to bring – in addition to funding, of course, which is its own way of giving them more room to polish.

Do you ever dive in the trenches and take the wheel on the development process, though? Like, “This mechanic could be boring/frustrating/a-handful-of-live-scorpions to your target audience – here’s how you should change it”?

One of the things Bungie has that’s really unique is our user research group. Our test group isn’t just the QA teams that most people have. They’re test engineers. They go and really work on a build; they look at requirements. They’re engineers by trade, so we help with things like stability and application efficiency. Things like that.

“One of our mottos is ‘We treat developers the way we want to be treated.’”

And user research spends a lot of time putting games through usability testing. Like, “Is the UI right? Are people confused?” And that’s something we do less on a day-to-day basis, but on a milestone basis. So we’ll define a milestone and say, “We want missions two and three stable and ready to play.” And when we have that build, we put it through the test and usability research cycles.

We definitely don’t want to be [too heavy handed]. One of our mottos is “We treat developers the way we want to be treated.” So we’d like to give them room to really work without us there every day. At the right milestones, we’ll look at it and build it into the schedule. One of the things we bring is production discipline. We want to give you feedback, and then you can go fix it.

What’s next for Bungie Aerospace? Larger-scale games? Mountains of smaller games? A real spaceship?

So we’re looking at a couple projects. The next project that’s likely to see the light of day is a small passion project from a few developers. It’s a very casual, highly visually stylized game experience. And it’s really designed to show the scope of projects we can do. So we were looking at something a small team of three people did part time. It’s not designed to be some big monetization ploy. It’s just the sort of game we’d love to whip out on our iPhones and play a bit.

The project after that may be a more ambitious project. And ultimately, we’d like to do even more ambitious things. Maybe not Infinity Blade-sized, but certainly [in the range] of the sort of production values and design. And when we see production values, we don’t mean visual presentation – but of that scale. So we’ll look at everything from very small projects to big projects.

“Ultimately, we’d like to do even more ambitious things.”

We do think that one of the things we’re most interested in is not just standalone projects. We want games to be repeat-played. We want to create communities out of our games. Halo has a great community around it, and that’s one of the things we want to bring. I’d like it to be a social experience – a social game, if you will.

Are you sticking with iOS games only right now?

Not necessarily. I think we’re really happy with the hardware capabilities of the iOS platform – although I heard their iOS 5 update today was a disaster.

But we’re not gonna stick with iOS only. You’ll see us on the PC. You’ll see us on other handheld devices. We obviously like Android quite a bit. We have a lot of people in the office with Android phones. Certainly different means of digital distribution are really interesting to us. I wouldn’t even rule out XBLA or PSN.

Do you think larger developers and publishers are unfairly ignoring the indie scene? Like, Bungie Aerospace is a fairly unique entity. But is that a good thing – especially as far as the industry as a whole is concerned?

I think Bungie is an unusual company in that we were an independent studio. We had developer-publisher relationships. We got bought by Microsoft, created some great games, and then we spun back out again. That gives us perspective. We really value our freedom now. We really took on what it meant to be an independent developer again. And in that way, we really are interested in what other teams are doing. The three [indies I cited earlier] were part of some pretty big teams before going indie. So our peers are going into that space.

“We got bought by Microsoft, created some great games, and then we spun back out again. That gives us perspective. We really value our freedom now.”

And we look at the hardware platforms, and they’re becoming more powerful and relevant. So I can’t speak for other studios, but for us, the values Bungie brings to game development are applicable to iOS. So remember five years ago when it was the original iPhone. The mobile scene was very different. The palette was so limited. What would our guys do to a mobile game dev back then? We’d have nothing to contribute.

But now the things we have are really useful. I was talking to a developer, and they’re looking at Facebook games. One of his concerns was “What happens when – through Flash or some other technological adoption – 3D [graphics] become relevant in social games?” I mean, Zynga already spends billions of dollars and dozens of people. They’re worried about that transition. That’s a time when we can really help developers manage that.

So I think it’s a space no one should really ignore.

What about the big-budget space? Do you think the amount of space for this kind of Wild West experimental spirit is dwindling?

Well, that’s an old discussion, right?

But it’s one that’s become more relevant lately. It used to be a big doomsday scenario talking point. Now, though, the stakes are higher than ever, and everyone’s feeling it. Even games like Homefront – which still managed to keep afloat in a retail sea of same-y competitors – don’t exactly live happily ever after. I mean, look at Kaos.

I think, certainly, the return on investment becomes a big issue when these games cost nearly $100 million or more. I don’t know what Homefront’s budget was, but I’m guessing it was $60-$70 million, easily. So there’s a lot of pressure there.

But I also think there’s a lot of pressure to innovate. You want to do something different. What are you going to do to stand out against Modern Warfare? Battlefield 3? The next Metal Gear Solid? Those are all big titles. And I think those games themselves also have a lot of pressure to innovate. The consumer only has $60 to spend on a bunch of titles. What are they going to choose? If your game is a rehash of the old game, they’re not going to be happy.

“All we have at Bungie is our reputation.”

All we have at Bungie is our reputation. We have to be creative. We’ve got to make smart choices. We’ve got to be smart where we innovate. I think that the high cost can in some sense strain innovation. But a game that doesn’t innovate is also a hard sell. So I can understand the popular argument that we worry about innovation [and money], and Homefront is a victim of that.

More interesting, I think, was THQ’s Company of Heroes, which was a spectacular game that didn’t get enough traction. But then, as those opportunities dry up, League of Legends and DoTA pop up, right? So that whole genre has pivoted. Maybe big-budget crowded out innovation in the RTS space, but it popped up somewhere else.

I knew a bunch of the Kaos guys, and I was really sad to see that studio shut down. But I think that – as there’s pressure somewhere else – what did Princess Leia say? “The more you tighten your grip, the more systems will slip through your fingers.” You tighten the grip there, and interesting stuff happens here. And DoTA and LoL are really innovative.

How does IP ownership work with Aerospace? After you’ve helped a game get off the ground, do you keep the license?

It depends. It’s a pretty rational process. If we fund everything, we keep more. If we take on all the risk, we keep more. But if the team has come with a prototype or gotten to alpha, then we discuss it. You know, maybe we have sequel rights. Maybe we get license to the code. Maybe we keep the code and license it back to them. We want to do a rational deal.

“We’re not here to own everything. I think that goes back to our idea of treating developers the way we want to be treated.”

We’re not here to own everything. I think that goes back to our idea of treating developers the way we want to be treated. You know, the people on these games are developers, and Bungie does have a publisher in Activision. We know what it’s like. Our studio’s philosophy is also to be very transparent, and we expect that with our developers.

When you’re a developer and you show something that’s not finished, you always worry that the publisher doesn’t understand “Oh, this thing isn’t final” or “That thing’s not final.” Since we’re in that position of understanding that core development process, I’d like to think we’re gonna be able to see what the core game values are about before presentation.

You’ve got this community that would probably take a bullet for every individual blade of grass you’ve walked on, and platforms like Origin, Call of Duty Elite, Battlelog, and Battle.net are all the rage right now. Is that your grand world domination plot for Aerospace? To expand into a unique social platform that flows through each of your games?

That’s a good question. I think Bungie.net already is that. We have lots of community, lots of users, lots of data. That’s the beginnings of what you’d consider a social network for players. Obviously, we are going to use existing systems. If we’re publishing on XBLA, we’re gonna use Xbox Live. If we’re on Facebook, we’re gonna use Facebook logins. You’ll see us integrating those features and more.

“I don’t want devs to think ‘We can only pitch them a Halo-quality game!’ That would be a boring world to live in.”

But Bungie.net is already that platform for us. We’re gonna start that and expand on that. It’s not going to be just a stats and leaderboard service. We have a lot of ideas of how to make it into a social network. And I think it’s really important that Bungie fans and players are able to find each other and play with each other – bring their friends into it.

And again, I don’t want devs to think “We can only pitch them a Halo-quality game!” That would be a boring world to live in. But I think all our games should work together and communicate with each other. An achievement in Crimson should unlock an achievement in another game or content. You want to create that community and give rewards to people. I think Steam does a good job of that. Even with all the titles they publish, they seed extra content into the ones their interested in. I think that’s great.

The app syncs with your Bungie.net and Xbox Live profiles. An iOS version is also available.

Thanks, Shack.

The last we heard of the game, participants in major US cities had received mysterious packages having registered on Test Subjects Needed.

Now, those who signed up have received emails alerting them to the Human Preservation Project’s new website – Survival Code.

By signing in with your previously registerred details – or starting a new account – players can explore the site and unlock mini-games. Although there may be other undiscovered methods, codes can be found on the back of packs of 5 Gum, which explains that brand’s fancy, game-like advertising of a few months back.

No doubt there’s a deeper mystery to be solved in all this, so go and have a fiddle. Be warned: the facilities are quite extensive.

Mission IceFly’s name apparently refers to a piece of Halo canon. When the project first debuted, it was noticed that ILoveBees, the Halo 2-related website which hosted one of the first prominent examples of this kind of marketing, had started up a timer – for five years, the time Master Chief has spent in statsis between Halo 3 and Halo 4.

• Next week on Rock Band 3: Fallout Boy, Deep Purple.
• Batman, or rather a Bungie employee whipped out a gun, and subdued a gunman robbing a guy at an ATM. We want to have a beer with this guy, ASAP.
• Sony has updated the PS Movie Store with Your Highness, Paul, Mars Needs Moms, Camp Hell, Jumping the Broom, Lifted, The Last Godfather, Cold Weather, more.
• Wanna know what MMOs will be on-hand at gamescom next week? MMOcrunch had you covered.
• A gamesom trailer for Gotham City Imposters is here.
• The iPad market share has declined despite the lack of serious competition, apparently.
• Gameloft plans to open a studio in Louisiana, and in the Big Easy no less.
• Eminem and some people I have never heard of are part of the NBA 2K12 soundtrack.
• Funcom is handing out a free potion pack in Age of Conan.
• Ree Soesbee has posted a fantastic bit of lore on the Sylvari in Guild Wars 2 over on the blog.
• Wanna know more about the new characters in White Knight Chronicles II? Sure you do.

• Katsuhiro Harada has discussed how mini-games came about in Tekken.
• If you pre-order Rock of Ages on Steam, you can get 10 percent off. It’s out on August 31, finally!
• Valve has announced the winners of its Portal 2 music video contest.
• EDGE is out in three days on Steam, and you can get your name in as well as recieve the full portfolio from Two Tribes and Mobigame if you win a “edging” video contest! Awesome. Don’t get hurt.
• Online game company Outspark appoints Philip Yun as new CEO after founder Susan Choe departs.
• The next Atelier game is apparently not set in Arland.
• Meet the members of Class 0 in these new Final Fantasy Type-0 screens.
• Stern Agee thinks the NBA lockout could cost Take-Two $40 million.
• You know those Bungie trademarks filed by its “dummy” corporation? They are now owned by the non-dummy corporation.
• The closed beta for Digimon Masters Online has started. Get the client here.
• Fallen Earth 1.9.2 debuts tomorrow, and it expands fast travel options.
• Havok is acquiring game engine maker Trinigy.
• EA is kicking off a new in-game advertising campaign with a Madden sweepstakes.
• Expect the beta for Transformers Universe ‘very soon’.
• New DLC for Dance Central hits next week and includes James Brown, Sean Paul, and Lloyd.
• iPad rivals have better chance in Europe than anywhere else, apparently.

As the firm prepares to hand the Halo torch off to Microsoft, the letter also hinted at future projects and changes coming to Bungie.net.

Here’s an excerpt from the letter:

“Thank you for making our 20th Anniversary, and this year’s Bungie Day, kick so much ass. As we prepare to become fans of the universe our studio began creating more than ten years ago, it’s nice to know that we’ll be counted among such esteemed company. Some might consider the upcoming transition a bittersweet occasion punctuated by a sense of loss and sadness. We feel otherwise. Halo is in great hands…yours.

“Halo is yours now. In many ways, it always has been. Its new caretakers will strive, just as we did, to be worthy stewards but you have the package. Hold these characters and stories and worlds to the same unflinching standards you did while we were at the helm, but allow them all to blossom and change and grow in the ways that they must.

“We’ll be undergoing a metamorphosis of our own. Very soon Bungie.net will change, culminating with the launch of our next universe at some unknown time in the future. The first small steps will be taken soon, with Halo playlist management changing hands on August 2nd, the very same day we plan to deploy our parting thoughts on the last twenty years through a ViDoc titled, ‘O Brave New Worlds.’

“Afterwards, we’ll be going dark on our studio’s next major endeavor – the creation of a brand new universe. You’ll still have a home here should you choose to stay, but our next project demands an unwavering focus. We owe it to ourselves to make something better than we ever have before. We owe it to you, as well.

“So, this isn’t a goodbye. It isn’t The End. Instead, it’s the very beginning of a new journey that will stretch the limits of what we are capable of.”

Read the entire thing through here.

[pic]

Hirai becomes SCEI chairman, House takes over as president

What happened: Sony shouted “change places,” and execs scattered every which way. Or maybe everyone fought to the death using old prototype PS3 banana controllers. We’re not really sure how it works over there. Regardless, former SCEE head Andrew House took the reins to SCE’s entire international operation, and Kaz Hirai dove for the comfy beanbag marked “chairman.” Ken Kutargai, meanwhile, came up short and stormed out, mumbling “Man, who needs those guys anyway? My perfectly rendered ducks are the only ones who understand me.”

What it means: According to the Internet, hackers took a boot to Sony’s precious hideaway, and now – like a bunch of ants – execs are dashing around to pick up the pieces. Problem is, Sony’s not a purely reactive ant hill; it’s carefully structured company. As such, our friendly neighborhood Rob Fahey put to rest any notion of post-apocalyPSN shenanigans. The short version? Sony’s clearing out its old guard of engineers-turned-execs in favor of silver-tongued masters of one almighty language: business. After the bleeding-edge hotrod that is the PS3 stalled at the starting line, it’s not at all surprising.

Certainly, the prospect of savvy, sweet-talking businessmen taking over where – at least, stereotypically speaking – honest, hard-working console-makers once ruled doesn’t spark the nicest gut reaction. On the other hand, the PS3 – to this day – is riddled with user-unfriendly annoyances (Installs! Firmware updates! The slow erosion of your ability to love!), so we’re looking forward to a focus on something a bit less obtuse.

SCOTUS rules against violent California games law

What happened: If you’re reading this website, you probably don’t think that videogames are Satan’s latest attempt at tempting your children to become awful delinquents who watch PG-rated films and sneak out after 7:36 PM. But some people do, and one of them once played a robot from the future whose defining personality trait was murder. The world is a strange place. Anyway, the whole Katamari of clashing ideals and agendas rolled into the Supreme Court, which finally shot the darn bill down. For now, anyway.

What it means: If this bill had passed, it’d have set the gaming industry back so many years that it’d probably have been devoured by a dinosaur. In essence, it would have allowed certain games to be equated with the likes of pornography, which – for obvious reasons – wouldn’t fly at the majority of US retailers. And if, say, Wal-Mart’s not going to give your game the time of day, then you may as well put the thing out of its misery long before its abysmal sales become the source of yours. No, M-rated games wouldn’t have been outlawed, but money talks, and this bill would have given it a comically oversized megaphone. In short, thank goodness for the First Amendment.

Better still, protection under the First Amendment should – barring some Phoenix Wright-worthy loophole – prove powerful enough to keep the gaming industry safe from further attempts at government “regulation.” After all, videogames now occupy the same hallowed legal halls as books, movies, and television. Singling them out for “objectionable content,” then, is to stir the hornet’s nest and pick a fight with everybody. Granted, where there’s a will, there’s a way. For now, though, folks like senator Leland Yee have no choice but to harmlessly walk away grumbling about “rights of parents” and limiting their ability to actually, you know, parent in the same sentence.

Report – EB Games Australia to pull Resi Evil: Mercenaries over save-game debacle

What happened: Capcom dropped a Raccoon City sized bomb when it confirmed that Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D lacked the ability to delete save files. In response, retailers like EB Games Australia refused to let the game infest their shelves altogether. Meanwhile, pissed-off gamers – somewhat fittingly – pissed all over the game, turning its Amazon review section into an ugly mess. Capcom then did an awful clean-up job with an explanation that attempted the “woooo, technology is confusing and hard” angle on a crowd of tech-savvy Internet geeks.

What it means: Is Capcom declaring war on the second-hand game sales market? The Internet seems to think so, but there’s another side to the story that warrants consideration: The Mercenaries 3D is kind of a half-assed product. It’s a bite-sized minigame appetizer for Resident Evil: Revelations’ main course, and boy does it show. It’s entirely possible that – in the process of pushing this thing out the door – Capcom simply didn’t care enough to include a crucial feature. The game’s absurdly barebones in every other way; what’s to say the same quick-and-dirty philosophy didn’t rear its ugly head here?

Regardless, retailers completely flipped, which just goes to show how utterly reliant on second-hand sales that market can be. After all, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D isn’t even a particularly significant title. Put simply, we don’t imagine Modern Warfare 3′s waking up and frantically hugging each of its money bags after dreaming of this game. But that didn’t stop EB Games, GameStop, and HMV from treating it like a ticking time bomb seconds away from exploding on their shelves.

Lulzsec announces retirement, leaks final details

What happened: That email you recently received stating that your credit card info, address, and beloved pet cat had all been released onto the Internet’s back alleys by a band of power-mad hackers? Yeah, you can thank these guys for that. LulzSec spent 50 days as the gaming industry’s new boogieman. Then the shadowy organization abruptly descended, well, back into the shadows. More shadows than it previously had, though – just to be clear. By our calculations, it could very well have doubled its shadow count.

What it means: Well, evergreen online force-to-be-reckoned-with Anonymous claimed to be picking up where LulzSec left off, but so far, the so-called “Anti-Sec” movement has yet to ripple back into the gaming world. For now, then, it’s back to business as usual after hackers ruled the headlines for months on end. We highly doubt, however, that this is over. It may not be LulzSec or Anonymous, but the gaming industry’s proven itself an easy target, and 15 seconds in the spotlight – ill-gotten or not – are hard to resist. Hopefully, though, LulzSec’s tear was enough of a kick in the pants to ensure that the gaming industry doesn’t get caught with its guard down again – or at least, not to this degree. On that front, only time will tell.

Bungie Aerospace revealed as small developer initiative

What happened: After a long period of coy mystery mongering, Bungie finally took the wraps off its Aerospace program. In a nutshell, it gives awesome indie games a chance to shine – instead of being crowded out by social and mobile titles with marketing bucks to spare.

What it means: This is all kinds of interesting, but gamers pretty much wrote it off as “Not Master Chief on a guitar-powered rocket-cycle. Next!” For one, it’s a major developer nearly assuming a publishing role for smaller developers, which – taking Activision into account – creates some sort of weird Russian matryoshka doll scenario. For another, this seems like a backdoor entrance into the mobile and social space for a triple-A dev like Bungie, whose resources are currently focused full-steam-ahead on a larger game. Meanwhile, many major developers are still sleeping on both spaces despite their obvious enormity, so taking initiative by helping out smaller, quicker teams will put Bungie on the map and miles ahead of the competition.

Also of note: hardcore gamers’ cynicism toward mobile and social gaming is pretty much notorious at this point, but a few nudges from revered sources like Bungie might change that. And really, most “gamer’s games” that light up App Store sales charts do so on brand power alone (or, in Gameloft’s case, shameless theft). Bungie’s program, on the other hand, promotes a more quality focused scene – at least, assuming it can draw an audience. Fingers crossed, anyway.

Bungie Aerospace is a strategy for Bungie to help fund, test and publicize indie games.

“We’re excited to have this small, focused effort to work with some great game development talent,” Bungie COO Pete Parsons told Kotaku.

“All of them are very, very talented, very, very passionate and excited to bring their games to life. We’re going to help them do that along the way.”

Multiple games are already in the works under the Aerospace banner, including one called Crimson, an iOS and Android project from Harebrained Schemes.

Harebrained’s headed up by FASA legend Jordan Weisman, who assured the game had nothing to do with Crimson Skies, the previous work for Xbox and PC based on air combat.

“It’s not set in that universe,” he said.

“There is no continuity with Crimson Skies. Hopefully if people are familiar with my work in the past, maybe they’ll relate that it has a similar, lighthearted, fun approach to its universe. But it is a different universe with different types of vehicles and so-on.”

There’s no date on it yet.

Check out the official Aerospace site for more, and hit the Kotaku link for more quotes from Parsons and Weisman.

There’s a press release here.

Blast Magazine reports the team behind ilovebees.com is also responsible for Mission IceFly.

Mission IceFly directs viewers to Test Subjects Needed to complete an emotional evaluation and register to participate in the game.

Having done so, you’ll be eligible to take part in whatever will occur when the IceFly timer finishes in about twenty hours. One participant is required in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Portland, Dallas, Washington, Nashville, Chicago, Denver, Orlando, Seattle, Boston, New York, San Francisco and Atlanta. You need a mobile phone, your login details, and the ability to receive a package.

Blast reports one Bungie.net member has already received a package from the Human Preservation Project, featuring an LED attached to a helicopter-like paper attachment and a message:

“We are both creatures of the senses, you and I – we inhabit the same reality, simmering just below the perceivable world.

“THE PULSE IS GROWING. CAN YOU FEEL IT?”

Meanwhile, the long-silent timer at ilovebees.com, the website at the heart of a groundbreaking AR game used to promote Halo 2, has started up again. It seems to be counting down for five years, but before you recoil in horror at the thought of a five year PR cycle, note that this is the same amount of time Master Chief has spent in stasis between Halo 3 and Halo 4.

Halo 4 is due on Xbox 360 at the end of 2012.

Thanks, GameSetWatch.

The only catch is that you have to win by twenty kills or more.

The studio also has several other events lined up for the coming weeks, like the Bungie Foundation charity auction which features gems like a Battle Rifle replica crafted by Weta Workshop that’s currently going for over $3,000.

It was recently revealed the iPad version of Bungie’s old Mac series Marathon will be released very soon.

it’s anticipated Bungie Aerospace, the new brand that Bungie has been using of late, will also be fully unveiled.The website for Aerospace is currently inactive.

Bungie’s currently working on a “new universe” with Activision.

• Codemasters has posted a bit of info on Bodycount along with the E3 video.
• Lionhead is getting into games education a bit.
• Poison and 3 Doors Down DLC hit RB3 next week.
• There’s a demo for Winter Voices on Steam.
• Gearbox wants to play DNF with you on XBL this weekend.
• Microsoft has shown off Mango, its new Games Hub for WP7.
• Bungie is eBay auctioning some expensive, but cool memorabilia for Child’s Play.
• Some Dynasty Warriors 7 screenshots are special and out in the wild.
• Sony’s holding a SOCOM 4 MLG Boot Camp, and $20k is up for grabs.
• Gearbox is having a sale on t-shirts and the like.
• Facebook game Ectopia has players clicking to plant 25,000 real-life trees.
• Write a letter to bring The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower to the US.
• Mario Marathon is playing SMB2 non-stop to raise money for Child’s Play.
• The US PS Movie store’s been updated with gems like Mega Python vs. Gatoroid, starring Debbie Gibson and Tiffany. You can’t make this shit up.

According to the interview with Blezek posted on Bungie.net, the controls for the 1994 Mac title are getting a bit of a rework, and the developer promised to add adjustable controls in the future.

“The original Marathon didn’t have an aiming reticule, and by default the iOS version sticks to that, but it can be enabled in the options,” Blezek said. “There is also an option to tap-to-shoot, but two finger tap for secondary fire didn’t make it into the final build.

“Sorry to the lefties out there, a future release will have adjustable controls.”

Blezek’s said the game will run at 30 frames per second, and getting the code to work with iOS involved quite a bit of labor as well.

“Digging into this code base to make the port happen and follow the iOS conventions was a huge effort,” said Blezek. “On top of that, the code depended on a wide range of libraries that also needed to be ported to the iOS. It was months before the code even built without errors.”

So far there isn’t a date or a price, but Bungie has promised to keep folks updated on the game’s progress.

Thanks, Eurogamer.

To score your own totally sweet blue flaming helmet, you’ll need to register on Bungie.net or through the Bungie iOS app, according to Joystiq.

You’ve got until bungie Day – July 7 – to grab one, along with a commemorative name plate.

Not convinced? Maybe you need to see them in action. Check out the trailer below, produced through a collaboration between Bungie and Red vs Blue.

The Legendary Edition of Halo: Reach also included a flaming helmet, but it wasn’t a totally sweet blue one, previously restricted to Bungie staff only.

Following a two year-long gap after the release of Halo 3 in 2007, three Halo titles have released in two straight years: Bungie’s Halo 3 expansion ODST and Ensemble RTS Halo Wars – the developer’s final game – in 2009 and Reach from the former last year.

With Reach being Bungie’s final contribution to Halo after creating the series in 2001 for the original Xbox, this year will see the release of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition this November from Saber Interactive, followed by the main event next year: Halo 4 from 343 Industries.

Despite that, Spencer says Microsoft won’t get into the habit of annualising the series further.

“People shouldn’t look at Anniversary as part of an annualized franchise,” Spencer told IGN at E3.

“I love the fact we’re doing the Anniversary edition because I loved Halo 1. We just looked at it and thought it needed to be refreshed. It wasn’t part of us trying to get into an annualized rhythm with the franchise.

“It will be done in time for this holiday that is the 10th Anniversary for Halo. It felt like a good time to celebrate it.”

With the release of Halo: CE Anniversary Edition, will it open the way to more HD reboots? Spencer didn’t rule it out, adding it has talked about a Halo 2 release.

“Obviously Halo 2 is one that we’ve talked about. I wouldn’t say this is a strategy for us to go back and remake Xbox 1 games,” he said.

“This was the 10th Anniversary of Halo so it made sense. We don’t really have a “remasters” program that we’re kicking off with this launch. There are obviously some great Xbox 1 games that would be nice to see, but we’ve focused most of our resources on creating new things. I’m not putting it in or out of bounds right now, though.”

The unveil will come as part of the developer’s 20th anniversary plans, beginning from June 23 and ending on Bungie Day on July 7.

“Because we’re going to tell you, in explicit detail, exactly what Bungie Aerospace is all about,” it said as one of the seven main details for the anniversary on its website.

A placeholder website for Bungie Aerospace has been online for the past year, but literally nothing has come of it since. Trademarks have also also been found as early as March this year.

It’s unknown if this’ll form part of Bungie’s new universe with Activision, but we’re going with a likely yes on this one.

“We were actually shooting for another video game company in space borrowed from the Bungie Offices,” Bungie’s Liz Spain, the poster of the original request for people to dress in their steampunk gear and come into Bungie for the shoot, told Gamespot.

“The game we were shooting for is going to be on the iPad.”

It emerged yesterday that Bungie was advertising for steampunk fans, especially those with Victorian-style military uniforms, to lend their services and be photographed for the project.

Rumour obviously assumed this was something to do with Bungie’s Activision IP, rumoured to be called Destiny, which was announced in April last year.

The new game is yet to be fully announced and has no release date, but we do know it’s being made for PC, PS3 and 360.

And it’s not a steampunk thing. Which is kind of a shame, in a way.

Victorian military costumes are specifically asked for in the ad, as they’ll “suit the game quite well”.

Reads the posting, published on the Seattle Steamrats forum:

Calling all Greater Seattle steampunks! I need people to show up in steampunk finery to have photos taken for video game artwork for a steampunk game currently in development. Wear your own steampunk clothing or show up and we’ll put you in costume. Snacks and beverages will be provided and a good time will be had by all!

Friday, June 3rd
9am – 8pm
Bungie Studios
550 106th Avenue NE
Bellevue, WA

Halo developer Bungie is currently creating a new universe for publication by Activision. No release date for the IP’s first instalment has been announced as yet.

Writing on the developer’s blog, Bungie’s Eric Osborne explained why the Bungie.net website has been “less and less active” recently.

“A significant amount of my time is also now being dedicated to other upcoming endeavors that won’t make a splash on the front page until Bungie Day [July 7] closes in around us,” he said.

“Unfortunately, that means there are just too many balls in the air for me to juggle without letting a few fall to the ground. More explicit details about those balls in the weeks ahead.”

Osborne apologised for Bungie’s long silence, and promised the developer will “make it up to you soon”.

Another contributing factor to Osborne’s silence is a recent “super-secret Los Angeles excursion”.

Can’t wait? Osborne also alluded to “breadcrumbs tucked away into the folds of Bungie.net that just might lead to something [Bungie staff have] been working on for a little bit now”.

Bungie has entered into a long-term publishing contract with Activision, and is rumoured to have a sci-fi MMO in the works.

Thanks, Blue.

Podophobia, a company reportedly set up to (unsuccessfully) keep fans and press from discovering Bungie trademark filings, has launched a website with the messages “Incoming Transmission…” and “Please Wait…” beneath a lengthy countdown timer.

Currently sitting at around 116 days, TechInfinite reports the end date of the countdown is the ten year anniversary of the original Halo: Combat Evolved, pointing to a long-expected HD remake of a game that inarguably changed the console scene.

On the other hand, Bungie has left the Halo series in Microsoft and 343 Industry’s hands, signing a ten-year publishing deal with Activision. It is rumoured to be working on a sci-fi MMO called Destiny.

In either case, we’re looking at about four months, so if we’re counting down to release rather than reveal, expect illumination at E3.

Thanks, someguy2.

HBO turned up a company called Podophobia Entertainment, founded by Bungie leader Harold Ryan and Halo composer Martin O’Donnell.

By checking the company name against trademark listings, the site found a filing for Destiny, showing the logo above.

Podophobia is currently listed as inactive, but the Destiny trademark was renewed in March.

What makes all this particularly inflammatory is that this logo has reportedly been spotted in the wild, apparently gracing Bungie producer Jonty Barnes’ shirt during a Penny Arcade video.

Rumours gave Destiny as the name of Bungie’s secret project, described as “WoW in space”. This is at least the second trademark and spin-off company filed by Bungie in the last few months.

Bungie entered into a ten year publishing agreement with Activision following its departure from the Halo series.

Thanks, Joystiq.