Over the weekend news broke that Bungie Studios is leaving Microsoft and once again becoming an independent studio. For those not too familiar with Bungie, they are responsible for some of the best videogames ever created, ranging from Marathon (FPS), Myth (RTS), and of course Halo. Before the Microsoft acquisition, I personally always considered Blizzard and Bungie on the same level, both being top-notch developers. Blizzard had Warcraft, Bungie had Myth. Blizzard had Battle.net, Bungie had Bungie.net. Blizzard had the failed Warcraft adventure game, Bungie had Oni. Neither studio seeks to reinvent the wheel when going about game design, each simply takes an existing formula and refines it, creating a gem among its peers.

Now unless you where a big fan, most do not know about Marathon and Myth simply because Bungie started as a Mac-only developer, and later did not have the marketing muscle to really promote its games. That said, for those that have played those games, you know they were far ahead of the curve in terms on innovation, and overall had a blizzard-like level of polish that was clear to see.

Marathon had a deep story for a FPS, similar to Dues Ex, a game that came out years later. Marathon also had features such a duel wielding weapons, second modes of fire, and NPC teammates long before all those become standard. It also had a multiplayer game that rivaled Doom, and in many ways surpassed it. Problem was, it was Mac-only, and hence saw a very small audience.

As for Myth 1 and 2, they were the first games I was truly addicted to, going so far as to hold the worlds #1 spot in Myth 2 on Bungie.net. To this day I consider Myth 2 one of the all time great multiplayer games, even above Starcraft and Warcraft 3. The Myth games were also ahead of their time, using a 3D engine long before those become standard. Bombs would roll down hills, arrows traveled farther if shot from high ground, and you could spin the camera as you wished. Myth also featured a great storyline and used cel animation movies for key parts. Its online component, played on Bungies version of Battle.net, was amazingly deep and user-friendly, again with features that only now we consider standard.

When I heard the news that Bungie was going solo, I was ecstatic, as this means one of the best studios is once again out of Microsoft clutches and free to create games THEY want to create, instead of pumping out a Halo each time Microsoft finds itself behind in the console war. What the next project will be for Bungie is unclear at this time, but I would not be too surprised if they venture into the MMO space. While generally over-crowded, I have no doubt that Bungie could create something fantastic, something that finally pushes the genre beyond WoW 2.0. Either that or they plan to compete with Blizzard once again in the RTS space, releasing something to compete with Starcraft 2.

Time will tell, but at least for this fan, the future for gaming is a little brighter.