Oh wow, this story is really interesting. Hot off their recent break-up with Microsoft, the guys at Bungie have just posted a new, quite revealing job listing. There has been a lot of speculation about what Bungie would do since it’s no longer bound to Xbox hardware, but would anyone expect them to begin development on a Dreamcast game? While this hasn’t been confirmed, the job listing on Bungie.net only points down one road:

Bungie Studios is looking for an experienced engineer with the skills and qualifications to port existing software to a challenging older hardware platform through emulation. This is a contract position and will require about one year of commitment for a single project.

Essential Functions

• Create tools and software to port a classic game to an emulated hardware platform. Define and help implement all processes for creating this and possibly subsequent ports.
• Planning, scheduling, assigning, and tracking the detailed tasks that are port related.
• Collaborate with other engineers to help build simple tools for future emulation projects.

Desired Qualifications

• Knowledge of Hitachi 128 bit chipsets.
• An exceptional understanding of NEC Power VR GPU (2nd generation)
• Understanding of GD ROM and HDD caching.
• Thorough knowledge of Yamaha legacy soundchips.
• Three or more years experience working as a (senior) engineer on a shipped AAA game title.
• Strong collaboration skills.
• Passion for classic hardware.

Please email resumes (along with demo reels, portfolios, sample code, and anything else that demonstrates your skills) to jobs@bungie.com.

This is probably the biggest slap in the face Bungie could have given Microsoft, short of developing for the Wii. The logistics of starting a Dreamcast project this late in the game is just impractical. With Sega having discontinued GD-Rom production, as well as support for their legacy consoles, how many copies of their ported game could they sell?

Could this be the possible first step towards a secret Dreamcast+? A redo featuring motion controls and a hard-disk for downloadable games? Nintendo’s recent success repackaging old N64s must have sparked some latent desires in Sega, because things are certainly looking that way.

We’ve contacted Sega and Bungie to comment on this article. We will update whenever we get a response.

Bungie.net

- Rob O’Rly

Posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 6:27 pm in the category:General, Music, Retro, Sega, Xbox. Comment RSS 2.0 feed. Comment it , or trackback this post.