Devil went down to Bungie

In a press release issued this morning, Activision announced that they have signed a ten year deal with development studio Bungie. Under this new deal, Activision will receive "exclusive, worldwide rights to publish and distribute all future Bungie games based on the new intellectual property on multiple platforms and devices." Bungie is best known for it's ongoing Xbox exclusive franchise Halo. So does this mean Halo is coming to the PS3?

Under the terms released so far, it seems as only new properties from this point will be released via Activision, so existing franchises such as Halo will not be included with the deal. What is interesting is how Activision states it's a "partnership to bring Bungie's next big action game universe to market." So will Bungie be leaving the Halo universe for good and start a brand new franchise?

While Bungie will remain an independent developer and retain all rights to their intellectual property, this is a major boon to Activision that has recently more or less lost their prized in house development studio Infinity Ward. Will Acitivision continue it's domination of the FPS market with the combined force of Call of Duty and an as yet unannounced Bungie project? Only time will tell.