Bungie Vets Form Download-Focused Moonshot Games

Three former Bungie staffers have founded Moonshot Games, an independent developer targeting the downloadable game space. Moonshot is headquartered in Seattle, with some degree of engineering support in Boston. It is being headed up by managing director Michel Bastien, along with creative director Rob Stokes and technology director Damian Isla. At Bungie, Bastien was a producer on Halo 2 and Halo 3 as well as the PC version of Halo; Stokes was a writer and mission designer on Halo 2 and Halo 3; and Isla was an engineer on Halo 2 and Halo 3. Other studios founded by Bungie veterans in recent years include Bungie co-founder Alex Seropian's Wideload Games and ten-year Bungie employee Max Hoberman's Certain Affinity. No specific target platforms for the new studio were mentioned in the company's announcement, but it said it is "dedicated to exploring the uncharted spaces of high-quality downloadable games," using experience from the traditional retail triple-A space to create games "built smartly on a modest budget." In a statement, Stokes added, "Roll is complete. We are pitching."