What if Apple had purchased Bungie??

Recently we have been hearing quite a bit about Apple being furious when Bungie was bought out by Microsoft around the time the first Xbox was released. A major part of this is the fact that Bungie isn't only known for Halo; many fans are not aware that they also made the Marathon series for the Mac. Apple must have taken quite the hit by losing Bungie and all of their loyal fans. It is understandable that Steve Jobs would be angry because of this but one part of this story which not many people have been reporting is the fact that Bungie has announced that they gave Apple the opportunity to match the offer made by Microsoft. At this time Apple was not the super power they have made themselves today thanks to the iPod/iPhone/iPad and the resurgence of MacOS but you have to believe they would have had enough money to match the offer. If this is in fact true Apple really has nothing they can complain about..



If we go back to that time and give Apple the billions it has today could we actually see a flip in the gaming market between Microsoft and Apple? Could millions of people be playing Apple 360's today instead of Xbox 360's? Apple is now focusing much more on game development but they have not yet shown any interest in getting into the console market.

Had Apple kept Bungie I truly believe that Bungie would not be the power it has made itself into today. Mac OS did not have a huge user base and over the years gamers have been switching from the PC platform to console gaming. Without having their own console Apple more than likely would have regretted purchasing Bungie due to lack of sales. Marathon is more of a cult franchise but that never made it any worse than Doom, it simply did not have the user base. Without the console market Halo would have suffered the same fate as well.

In the end I feel all companies involved have made out very well by the deal. Apple may have saved themselves millions in losses while Microsoft and Bungie made millions. Since then Microsoft has allowed Bungie to stop being a first party developer as well allowing Bungie to become the true winner.