Chronique:WWU 05/10/2007

Posted by Frankie at 10/5/2007 8:03 AM PDT

Get the popcorn out. Biggest News Ever. In the return of the Weekly What's Update.

This feature will grow throughout the day as we add new Questions and Answers. They will go in at the top, so check back from time to time.

Almost Nobody asked,

What’s all this about Bungie and Microsoft splitting up?

Bungie Branches Off

As you have no doubt read on the web today, Microsoft Corp. and Bungie Studios, have reached an unprecedented and exciting agreement – starting immediately, Bungie will become an independent company and will retain a long-term publishing agreement with Microsoft Game Studios for “Halo” titles. The new structure became effective on Oct. 1, 2007. The official blurb follows, but since you’re a valuable part of our community, we thought we’d sum it up simply and concisely.

Bungie has long been built on creativity, originality and the freedom to pursue ideas. Microsoft agreed, and rather than stifle our imagination, they decided it was in both our best interests to unleash it. We’ll continue to make Xbox 360 games, and we’ll continue to make amazing games for MGS. In that regard, nothing has changed. All that has changed is that now Bungie Studios is once again, the property of the folks of Bungie Studios. Microsoft is and will continue to be, a brilliant, inventive and creatively collaborative publishing partner. Practically speaking, nothing has changed and you guys won’t see much, if any difference, for a while unless you come to work for us, that is – we’re hiring at http://www.bungie.net/inside/jobs.aspx

The official Bungie press release goes something like this:

Press Release:

For Release 8 a.m. PDT

Oct. 5, 2007

Bungie Studios Becomes Privately Held Independent Company

Bungie and Microsoft forge new long-term relationship.

KIRKLAND, Wash. — Oct. 5, 2007 — Bungie and Microsoft Corp. today announced a plan for Bungie Studios, the developers of Microsoft’s “Halo” franchise, to become a privately held independent company, Bungie, LLC, in which Microsoft will hold a minority equity interest. As part of this transaction, Bungie and Microsoft have forged a deep and long-term development and publishing relationship focused on the continued success of the “Halo” franchise. It is also the intent of both parties to expand their partnership to include new IP created and owned by Bungie.

Bungie’s critically acclaimed Xbox 360® exclusive “Halo 3” achieved $300 million in global sales in its first week. Released on Tuesday, Sept. 25, “Halo 3” is the fastest-selling video game ever and already one of the most successful entertainment properties in history.

“This exciting evolution of our relationship with Microsoft will enable us to expand both creatively and organizationally in our mission to create world-class games,” said Harold Ryan, studio head for Bungie. “We will continue to develop with our primary focus on Microsoft’s platforms; we greatly value our mutually prosperous relationship with our publisher, Microsoft Game Studios, and we look forward to continuing that affiliation through ‘Halo’ and beyond.”

“Working with Microsoft was great for us, it allowed us to grow as a team and make the ambitious, blockbuster games we all wanted to work on. And they will continue to be a great partner. But Bungie is like a shark. We have to keep moving to survive. We have to continually test ourselves, or we might as well be dolphins. Or manatees,” said Jason Jones, Bungie founder and partner.

Bungie’s management retained the services of Don Leeds, senior managing director of B-Hive Global, LLC, to spearhead the structuring of the deal and negotiate on their behalf. Bungie will remain in Kirkland, Washington, and is always looking to hire excellent talent.

About Bungie

Bungie was founded in 1991 with two goals: to develop games that combine brilliant technology, beautiful art, intelligent stories and deep gameplay, and to sell enough of those games to achieve its real goal of total world domination. Over the past 10 years it has produced games such as the “Marathon” trilogy and the first two “Myth” games, hailed as classics by critics and gamers around the world. Bungie’s “Halo” franchise is an international award-winning action title that has grown into a global entertainment phenomenon, selling more than 18 million units worldwide, logging billions of hours of multiplayer action on Xbox LIVE®, and spawning action figures, books, graphic novels, soundtracks, apparel and more. The critically acclaimed “Halo 3”, released on Tuesday, Sept. 25th 2007, is the fastest-selling video game ever, achieving $300 million in global sales its first week, making it one of the most successful entertainment properties in history. More information on Bungie can be found at http://www.bungie.net.

For more information, business only:

Bungie Global Media: Brian Jarrard, (425) 739-4900 ext.1, [email protected]

Bungie European Media: Cathy Campos, Panache PR, +44 1483 401099 / [email protected]

Bungie Online: www.bungie.net

B-Hive Global: Don Leeds, [email protected], www.b-hiveglobal.com

Too many people to list asked,

Why is it my sniper lags, or my melee fails, or blah blah blah…

What you’re seeing is roughly the same situation as you would have in Halo 2, but with movies and screenshots available to examine this stuff, you’re seeing more alleged injustice on a frame by frame basis. The sniper IS harder to use now, so sack up, it requires more skill. The melee attack is more fair, since in cases of true simultaneous attack, the guy with more health wins.

IMABALLPLAYER asks,

Why can't you rewind in the theater, by just pushing the left trigger. It would have made it a lot easier. Great job on the game by the way!

Also... FIRST!

Because we’re dealing with game data, a bunch of factors mean that it can’t be rewound like video. That’s why we chose Left on the d-pad to skip back a “chapter” in Multiplayer – because the action was more analogous to that feature on a DVD. That function is not available in Campaign at all, since the amount of calculation to do that, and unpredictable loading, made for a lousy player experience. So we cut it. Multiplayer has the Chapter-back function because no loading is required, just resetting of data.

Aquanerd13 asks,

Why do we HAVE to push the direction pad to talk in matchmaking?

Well, you don’t always, but there are a few reasons. One is the endless chatter becomes distracting for some players. More importantly, the amount of bandwidth used for non-stop chat (whether folks are talking or not) is far better allocated to the game. This phenomenon is playlist dependant. For example, Team Slayer 4x4 games have open voice, while Big team Battle requires PTT.

Samadam asks,

Why can't we skip through saved films using the d pad? I had a matchmaking film and wanted to check to see how the very end of it went down, and I had to fast forward through the entire 9:00 to watch the end.

That’s a limitation (again) of data versus video, however, there is an undocumented feature that makes it easier:

At any time in a Saved Film:

When you are holding down the Right Trigger (doesn’t matter if you are FF or Slo-mo); press Start to pause the game, let off the trigger, then press B to dismiss the Start button menu, and VOILA, the film keeps playing at the speed you were holding the trigger at when you hit Start. This way you don’t have to hold down the Trigger all the way to get to minute 45 of a campaign film to take that screenshot.

Frogwart asks,

How many new maps are under construction?
Will we see these released by the end of the year?
Thanks for the fantastic game!

Plenty.

No announcements have been made yet.

I played the greatest game of Infection yesterday on one of them – a map big enough for crazy vehicle antics, but also unexpected.

SneakySpartan16 asks,

are you gonna bring back lockout to it's full glory? don't metion guardian as a replacement because it's not!

Guardian was never intended to replace Lockout, but it does share approximate scale and game type suitability. Guardian is Guardian.

GruntsofFury asks,

Are you planning to add clans into halo 3? If so any idea on when and if it will be the same setup?

We will not add clan support to Halo 3 beyond the tools Bungie.net enables players to use. However, if Clan support becomes a part of the dash or Xbox Live in the future, then our game will continue to comply with updated Dash features. Caveat: We have no idea if that is happening or not, so don’t read too much into it.

Guyver45 asks,

Is it true that the Flaming Head and Ninja Recon helmet is for Bungie only?

No idea what you’re talking about. Flaming Heads? Nonsense.

TheR3aP3r asks,

Does my rank in social playlist carry over to ranked playlists?

Yes. It is an experience measurement. But that cuts both ways – quitters will be punished everywhere.

Jasonillig asks,

How do we make floating checkpoints in forge? Also can other objetct be made to float?

There are several methods. A simple one is to have a friend hold a crate in mid-air and then you place the object you wish to float at the top of the stack. Then move the crate away. Your object will maintain its position, but remember only certain objective items will levitate permanently - such as Spawn and Checkpoints. Other objects can be levitated briefly using the crate-stack-delete method, but it's unstable - they will fall - although they will respawn at their levitated position when destroyed. Try adjusting spawn times for laughs.

Mallikas asks,

Why is the social playlist matchmaking so slow?

A number of enhancements are being made to playlists, including minor big fixes which will cause major improvements in matchmaking. Please mind our dust.

POLOFOLKS asks,

Is there a fix in the works for the split screen issue? For most of us it’s killing us to see 2 black bars every time we play with a buddy.

We do that to maintain a proper field of view and aspect ratio on HDTVs. The alternative is a broken Field of View or stretching. One awkward trick you could use is to set your box to 480p and non-widescreen, then let your HDTV stretch the signal. That would be sorta fugly, however.

Westsidekilla asks,

why does team shotty snipers show up so much in team slayer?

It’s an error that’s being fixed very, very shortly. Our apologies.

BlatentB asks,

What happened to the real time reflections on Master Chiefs visor?

Nothing. They’re still in the game engine, but they’re not really much use, and are kind of a waste of CPU, so in many instances, MP for example, we save resources for more important stuff by using cube maps.

Johnrap asks,

Can we play Team Slayer on Sandtrap?

Well obviously you can in customs right now, but it’s not outside the bounds of reason that we could incorporate it into Matchmaking with suitable tweaks.

Silverfoxx903 asks,

The interface is more complex because the game has FAR more features than ever before. We integrate with the excellent Xbox Live and Dashboard features – and one of the compromises there is that some stuff has to happen in the Guide. All in all, there are far more benefits to this system than drawbacks. And we do let you call stuff up with the “Y” button for ease of use.

Mercharcer asks,

Now that MLG has released its rule set, when can we expect to see Team Hardcore in Matchmaking? When Team Hardcore is released will it use the MLG maps also?

The MLG is an independent organization, no relation to Microsoft or Bungie. MLG uses Halo’s tools to customize maps and modes to suit its playing preferences. Anyone can do the same things as the MLG using those tools. We will of course start to include more competitive game types in matchmaking, but they are not going to be MLG branded, since the MLG is not Bungie and vice versa. That said, some Bungie dudes may or may not be at the MLG finals in Vegas for giggles.

Maaaxxx asks,

What happened to instant replays you guys were talking about in one of thevidocs?

They’re called Saved Films, they’re chosen from the “Switch Lobby” menu item and just out of curiosity, how did you get this far on the internets?

BunsenBeaker asks,

Perhaps I have missed it but is the Fuel Rod cannon and incendiary grenades available in Forge?

Yes – but Forge “budgets” are performance dependent, so certain maps can’t use certain weapons and vehicles. If it’s not in the list, it’s not available for that map.

-blam!- Pizza asks,

I remember seeing some screenshots of earlier builds of forge where there were boxes floating in mid air why was this removed?

It wasn’t removed. Try stacking stuff and deleting the stuff beneath it. Also, I know this question was already asked, but I just thought the gamertag was funny. So there you go.

Potsy Uni asks,

Why can't Bungie let us click the press a thumbstick twice to talk to our team. It would resolve the d-pad issue and let us play better by keeping our fingers on the stick instead of strafing our (bleeps) right off the (bleeping) map.

That’s a terrible idea.

WoopyD asks,

2 QUESTIONS

I was wondering when i get killed by melee why does my body go flying across the map........

Also why isn't there a ranked game type with more than 4 people on a team......

Because it is awesome. There will be soon.

Santiago Ox asks,

During Infection games is it possible for players who are infected to assume a Flood physique?

It would make the game type merge with the Halo storyline and be more ominous.

No. That is not possible, although we did consider it ages ago.

Dr. Alisdair asks,

Can you set the gates in High Ground or Last Resort to be open/closed at the start of the game in a forge-modified map or gametype? If so, how?

Not in Forge – the openness of a gate is decided by the Game Type you choose. Objective games, for example, default the gate on High Ground to closed.

Undead Jestar asks,

How many mails did you send to Fanta complaining about the lack of hot Fantanas in your basement after drinking their delicious sodas?

Broward asks,

When you get hijacked in a vehicle, it seems you are always crouching when you get out, and you have to click the analog stick in to stand up. Is this a glitch, or how you wanted hijacking to work? Thank you for your time!

Do you have toggle crouch turned on? What you describe is weird.

AngelofDeathMG asks,

Is there any way that we will ever be able to play as a grunt? Like a covenant playlist where you could choose to be brute, jackal, grunt, and your start equip based on rank? also, will any classical map be returning?

Nope. We're only remaking Chiron and we're doing, night time, daytime and dusk versions of it.

St. DVDA Gundam x asks,

Why can't we see each player's individual medal acheivements on B.net when I click on the individual games listed under Game History? We were able to see this on B.net with Halo 2, but now all I can find is all the medals earned by everyone collectively but they aren't broken down by individuals. This was one of my favorite features of Halo 2. Am I just not looking in the right place? Thanks, DVDA.

Mouse over the avatar to see individual medals.

JGD Live asks,

Will there be any chance of having an option to remove power ups from maps?
The Pit is perfect for my (Team) SWAT variant but I don't want to have to make copies of maps where I've removed power ups, surely this option should be there?

Why is that hard? It takes like, 30 seconds and the map is then neatly organized on your 360.

It's time to start building that slingshot.