Publishers Zeroing-In On Next Bungie Title News

Bungie's Lars Bakken has revealed that the studio is "close" to securing a publishing deal for its next (and still untitled) game project, while noting that Bungie staff will find out who their publishing suitor is "sometime soon".

"I think internally we'll know sometime soon," Bakken told Eurogamer. "I don't handle these things, but I'd imagine we're going to know way before we make the public announcement of who's handling that! But sure, I think those talks are, I guess, close."

At the same time, Bethesda's Production Director, Ashley Cheng has indicated on his personal blog that Bethesda may be involved in the bidding war for Bungie's next opus. Cheng noted that he believes there are only six publishers that could afford to publish the game.

"You can count on one hand the number of publishers around who can afford to publish Bungie's next game: EA (via EA Partners), Activision, Ubisoft, Microsoft, and of course, Bethesda," said Cheng. "I can only imagine how much it will cost to snag their next title.

"There is one more publisher who could get into the game: Sony," continued Cheng. "That would be interesting. Unlikely."