Gearbox president Randy Pitchford has nothing but godlike praise for Bungie Studios and Infinity Ward, but now he asks ”what else have you got?”
Pitchford really wants to hear what ”amazing” team Bungie are up to ”that’s not Halo,” admitting it’s difficult right now for studios to gamble on new IP. Breakup with MGS was ”a big risk.”
”I keep waiting to hear what Bungie is going to do that’s not Halo,” Gearbox man Pitchford told VideoGamer.com. ”Those guys are amazing, right? They walk on water!”
”And the same with Infinity Ward. It’s like, dude I’m totally psyched to get my Call of Duty fix every year, but you guys are amazing! What else have you got? Can you give me something I haven’t seen before?”
Right now any venture into new franchise IP is quite dangerous and unattractive, the budgets just aren’t there yet for the majority of studios after taking such heavy hits across the whole industry, especially when brands like Halo and Modern Warfare are such guaranteed successes.
”The folks that are innovating need to be rewarded so that the folks that are making big bets can take that risk. It’s too big of a risk for Infinity Ward to do anything but what they’re doing, because there’s too much value and there’s really big scope for it,” he added.
Bungie have already hinted they want out of the Halo game, they’d prefer to explore some other avenues. Infinity Ward meanwhile seems happy to nurture their Modern Warfare spin-off from the main Call of Duty franchise. Should they move on, or do you want them to stay?
