Bungie Aerospace a mobile, social-themed partner program

Earlier this month, Bungie announced that it would celebrate its 20th birthday, in part, by announcing what exactly the mysterious Bungie Aerospace is. Today, the studio has made good on that promise, saying that Bungie Aerospace is not its new game, but in fact a new partner program.

Bungie Aerospace is a mobile- and social-themed partner program aimed at helping independent studios launch their titles. More specifically, the program will "give studios the creative freedom and the resources they need," which includes the Bungie.net platform, as well as "an audience with the incredible Bungie community."

Aerospace's first official partnership has been forged with Seattle-based Harebrained Schemes, which is led by Jordan Weisman. Weisman devised Halo 2's "I Love Bees" alternate reality game and helped promote Nine Inch Nails' Year Zero album with an ARG of the same name.

Harebrained Schemes' first game is not entirely a surprise. In May, Bungie Aerospace trademarked a game called "Crimson." According to Bungie's announcement, Crimson is the code name of Harebrained Schemes' first game, which is scheduled to arrive this summer on Android and iOS devices.

"The ultimate goal of Bungie Aerospace is to help independent developers create and showcase their games. That's the bar," reads a statement from Bungie. "Unless you also count the giant pile of cash we're all hoping to swim around in, but that seems really materialistic."

Further, Bungie made it clear that the open mobile career positions it is currently hiring for are not related to Bungie Aerospace. The shop said that the mobile developers hired on at Bungie are working on "secret stuff," as well as the recently launched Bungie iOS app, and are not related to Aerospace development.

For more on Bungie Aerospace, check out its just-launched website.