Bungie’s $60,000,000 Activision marathon

Sixty million dollars. That’s how much Bungie could receive in bonuses if it hits all of the milestones set in its publishing deal with Activision.

As revealed by court papers and reported by Develop, Bungie has been set a string of targets for the partnership that could pay out big time for the studio.

Here’s what Bungie could receive:

• $7,500,000 – for delivering the first Destiny title on time in 2013 (with a maximum of $1.5m, that’s 20 per cent distributed to staff)
• $2,500,000 – if the first Destony game scores 90% or above on Gamerankings.com
• $25,000,000 – if Activision makes $750m in associated operating income during a 12 month period
• $25,000,000 – and additional $25m if Activision’s operating income hits $1bn

Oh, and each Bungie employee is entitled to two free Activision games. Each. Per year.

There’s plenty more to emerge from the papers, too.

Bungie has also been granted permission to dedicate five per cent of its key staff” for a self-funded reboot of its Marathon IP. Bungie will be free to publish its new Marathon title once the Destiny project achieves operating income of $375,000.

Furthermore, once the Destiny business generates $750,000 Bungie will be free to dedicate up to 25 per cent of its key staff’ to non-Activision published projects.

However, a number of caveats are also in place should Activision get cold feet about the project.

Activision retains the right to terminate the deal should the first Destiny game not hit 5m unit sales within six months of its release. It’s also free to walk away after the release of the second Comet title in 2016 with no strings attached.

It could also have chosen to terminate the deal had Halo Reach not hit 80 per cent on Metacritic or sold 6m units in its first six months.

It doesn’t end there, either. Three rivals were specifically named as not being able to work with Bungie or any further Destony or Comet titles – Valve, Epic and Gearbox.