Tippl: Online "expected" to be a big part of Bungie's new game

Activision COO Thomas Tippl has said that Bungie has a "well thought-out business model" behind the game it's working on at the moment.

Speaking with Kotaku, Tippl said that at this point neither side are ready to talk about what this business model entails, but that you can expect it to contain online elements.

"We are not ready at this point to talk about the business model of the game," he said. "Bungie has been working on this project for awhile and have a well thought-out business model behind it.

"It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that online is where the industry is going. The online component of Bungie's games has always been very important to everyone."

"Online should be expected to be a big part of their next game."

While this may lead some to conclude that it an MMO, Bungie's Brain Jarrard refused to confirm or deny the possibility to VG247's Patrick Garratt in a phone interview this morning.

"I’m not going to confirm or deny [the MMO rumblings]," he said. "[People] thought that Halo 3 was an MMO and Reach even more so.

"Certainly, we’re looking at… Bungie has a pedigree of online experience and a pedigree of social and community interaction, and our future is to build on our strengths. And, obviously, Activision has a lot of expertise in the online space as well.

"It’s a little too premature to peg a genre or a specific type of game. We’re not quite ready to have that discussion yet".

Jarrard also said that while it's possible that the new game will be shown at E3 in June, right now Bungie's sole focus is getting Reach finished, which it also plans to continue to support.

More through the links.