New Marathon

by General Vagueness , The Vault of Sass, Thursday, March 28, 2013, 20:05 (4267 days ago) @ Cody Miller
edited by General Vagueness, Thursday, March 28, 2013, 20:09

By my reading of the contract, this is how it is. As long as Destiny is going smoothly (specifically as long as no Destiny products are in a state of "Critical Risk"), once Bungie produces $375M of "Operating Income", which is total income minus a few deductions that look standard and whatever Activision pays for marketing, publishing, etc., and have put out the second Destiny game, they can develop games unrelated to Destiny that aren't "action shooters". When they put out the DLC for the third Destiny game, they can work on other "action shooters", as long as they don't release one during the first year after they stop working on Destiny and give Activision first negotiating rights for publishing. The "Marathon" project is specifically exempt from all this, though. Bungie can devote up to 5% of their "Key Members" and up to 5% of all their other employees to "Marathon" right off the bat. That becomes 10% of both groups at $375M in "Operating Income", 25% at $750M, and whatever percent they think is reasonable at one billion dollars. They can't actually release "Marathon" until they reach that $375M figure, and again they have to give Activision dibs on publishing it. It also makes it clear that "Marathon" is to be completely separate from Destiny, Activision will not fund it at all, and Bungie can't put more than $5 million (including any outside investment) into anything besides Destiny until they've put out the DLC for the second Destiny game. There are also certain "Key Members" that are known as "Key-Key Members". They can't work on anything besides Destiny as long as Bungie is working on the agreed-on Destiny games, except that some of them will be allowed to transition over to other projects after the DLC for the first Destiny game comes out if they get permission from Activision and if they're replaced by other "Key Members". Who the "Key Members", the "Key-Key Members", and the "Key-Key Members" that might be allowed to work on other projects are seems to be detailed in another document that's not included.