Bungie Countdown Stopped By Microsoft

For those that may not know, Bungie has had a countdown going for about a little over a day now, but at exactly exactly 00:12:00:00 the countdown stopped.  The above information was posted.

The basic gist of it is that Bungie was forced by their publishing partner to not reveal said product at the planned time. The quote in full along with more information after the break.

From: Harold Ryan

Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 7:00 PM

Subject: E3 Announce

For the last several months, we’ve been building toward a reveal of something exciting that Bungie is working on. We were looking forward to sharing that with our fan community during the week of E3. However, those plans were just changed by our publisher.

We realize that many of our fans are disappointed by this turn of events; members of the Bungie team share that disappointment.

When the right time comes, we look forward to sharing this exciting announcement with you. Until then, we appreciate your continued support and patience.

Harold Ryan

President

Bungie LLC

First things first, their publishing partner for this new venture has been confirmed to be Microsoft by Bungie community manager, Luke Smith. The immediate knee-jerk reaction from fans and media was speculation that this was just a ploy to get fans riled up, to then follow up with a huge ‘Just kidding, guys! Here’s our new game, love it!’

But it’s been multiple sources have said this is not a red herring. Microsoft did indeed stop the announcement, and everyone at Bungie is as upset as their fans.

We’re waiting for some sort of an explanation from Microsoft. We’ll keep you posted should any more information arise.

Source: Bungie