Bungie Studios

Bungie Studios is a video game developer founded in 1991 under the name Bungie Software. For much of the 1990s they developed a series of increasingly technically detailed first person shooter (FPS) games for the Macintosh, the most famous being the Marathon series, following this with the acclaimed Myth tactical-combat series for both the Mac and Windows. Bungie games were particularly well-loved by players due to their complex backstories which often left more unanswered than revealed.

In 1999 they announced their next product was a return to the FPS genre, with a world-beating physics and AI system, to be known as Halo and to be released at the same time on both the Mac and Windows. On June 19, 2000, Microsoft announced that they had acquired Bungie Software and that Bungie would become a part of the Microsoft Game Division (subsequently renamed Microsoft Game Studios) under the name Bungie Studios. The original versions were soon delayed and the game was re-purposed for the Xbox, with the Mac and Windows versions only shipping two years later when it was no longer the renowned product it would have been in late 2000. The Xbox version of Halo received the Game of the Year and Console Game of the Year awards for 2002 from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, is known as a system seller and as of 2004 is still a videogame bestseller. Halo: Combat Evolved has been one of the most critically acclaimed games over the last three years, and its sequel Halo 2 has been called the 'most anticipated game of all time' by IGN Xbox.

Their offices were originally based in Chicago, Illinois. After Microsoft's acquisition, they moved into the Microsoft Campus at Redmond, Washington.

While not directly behind the program, Bungie oversaw and 'signed off' on the Haunted Apiary puzzle, named after the address of the 'hacked' bee-keeping website around which the game revolves briefly appeared in the Halo 2 theatrical trailer. They provided the Haunted Apiary designers with the "Halo Bible", allowing the story to fit to Bungie's specifics.

Bungie Mythos
Bungie, like many production companies, puts references to older games in newer games. Unlike others, many of these references hint or imply that a great deal of Bungie's games operate in similar or identical universes. Most well known of this is the connection between the Marathon universe and the Halo universe, which share a great deal of similar names and themes.

While most believed that Bungie would never add a direct connection between these two games (just as they did not for Marathon and Pathways Into Darkness), its interesting to note that the Haunted Apiary puzzle did add a substantial connection between the Marathon universe and the Halo universe: Rampancy can happen to AIs in both universes.

Another interesting fact about Bungie is their use of the number seven. Many of these are more obvious than others, including 343 Guilty Spark (7 x 7 x 7 = 343), Pfhor Battle Group 7, and their official fan club, the 7th Column, but some of these are amusingly subtle: the Marathon colony ship was a hollowed out Deimos - first discovered in 1877 and first photographed in 1977.

Bungie games

 * Gnop! (1990)
 * Operation Desert Storm (1991)
 * Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete (1992)
 * Pathways Into Darkness (1993)
 * Marathon (1994)
 * Marathon 2: Durandal (1995)
 * Marathon Infinity (1996)
 * Myth: The Fallen Lords (1997)
 * Myth II: Soulblighter (1998)
 * Oni (2001)
 * Halo: Combat Evolved (2001)
 * Pimps At Sea (2002])
 * Halo 2 (2004)