Former Bungie Man Carries the Load

Wideload Games Inc., operates out of Chicago, Illinois, and is headed up by the founder of Bungie Studios, Alexander Seropian. The independently-funded studio has a core of fewer than twelve full-timers, and intends to hire staff as required to bring its ideas and game prototypes to life. Seropian hopes that this way of designing games will save money and reduce development time.

After his experience with Bungie, Microsoft and Halo - a huge success on Xbox - Seropian almost didn't return to games development at all. In an interview with Reuters, he said, "I kind of decided I didn't want to do it unless I solved the problems I had experienced and the ones I saw coming with the next round of consoles". On the current games development climate, Seropian was damning in his opinion on how contemporary games are made, stating, "It's kind of broken, it's kind of antiquated, it's how they were making films in the '30s. Part of it makes me really think, there's so much waste in this business. This industry is growing faster than it's maturing".

Wideload's first project is a game based on the Halo engine and due to appear in 2005. Seropian estimates that around 50 people will make it happen, and that costs can be kept to a minimum using his aforementioned business model.