Bungie hiring PC developers

Before Microsoft bought Bungie Studios in 2000, the developer made a series of successful games for the PC (Myth) and Macintosh (Marathon). Since then, it has had one dalliance with the PlayStation 2, Oni, and produced the two highest-grossing Xbox games of all time, Halo and Halo 2. While Halo has been released for the PC and Mac, Bungie left porting duties to outside developers Gearbox Software and MacSoft, respectively.

Given that Bungie has ignored the PC and is currently concentrating on Halo 3 for the Xbox 360, many were surprised to discover that the studio is hiring PC developers. The jobs page on Bungie.net is sporting listings for an audio programmer and network programmer with "previous experience writing PC audio engines." It also has posts seeking applicants for "Game Programmer" and "Graphics Programmer (PC)" positions.

Taken in and of themselves, the listings are merely interesting. However, the wording of the graphics programmer job description has many positively convinced that Bungie is porting Halo 2 to the PC in-house. "This is an opportunity to influence the direction of Windows gaming technology in MGS [Microsoft Game Studios]," reads the post after first teasing, "Want to work on the biggest franchises for Microsoft Game Studios?" Since becoming part of Microsoft Game Studios, Bungie has worked on only one franchise for the division--Halo.

The programmer listing goes on to say that "a background working with other people’s code...is essential" and that any candidate should have experience with DirectX 9 and Xbox software development kits. Many readers took those two statements to mean candidates will need to be able to look at previously built Xbox Halo 2 code and help tweak it for a PC version.

For most PC gamers, the icing on the Halo 2-port-theory cake came at the end of the listing, which said being "an avid PC gamer" is a "definite plus." But, as usual, Microsoft is remaining mum on all things Bungie. As of press time, reps for the corporate giant's game division had not returned a request for comment.