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BUNGiE

the untold origin story
A Feature Film by Raised By Robots
Chicago, 1999
the night before everything changed

Before Halo changed gaming forever,
it was just a sketch on a napkin,
a demo on a Mac,
and a dream held together
with duct tape and Mountain Dew.

This is the blood-splattered, controller-snapping, pizza-box-strewn origin story of Halo... and the rise, fall, and chaotic survival of Bungie, the games development studio behind it.

Myth II: The Bug
october 26, 1999 · "deleting files... 98%"
Why This Story

2026 marks 25 years of Halo.
Every gamer over 30 has a Halo story.
Nobody knows the real one.

The Bungie origin story is one of the greatest untold stories in tech. It has everything — betrayal, genius, near-bankruptcy, a David vs Goliath fight, and a product that redefined an entire industry. It's The Social Network for the gaming generation.

01
25th Anniversary
2026 marks 25 years since Halo: Combat Evolved launched and changed gaming forever. A quarter-century of cultural impact — and the perfect moment to tell the origin story. The anniversary creates a built-in marketing event, global press coverage, and an audience already primed for nostalgia.
02
Untapped IP
81 million players. $6 billion in franchise revenue. A built-in global audience that has never seen this story on screen. The Halo name alone opens doors no original screenplay can.
03
Nostalgia Wave
The generation that grew up on Halo LAN parties is now 30-45 years old — the peak demographic for theatrical and streaming. They have disposable income and deep emotional connection to this era.
04
Proven Genre
BlackBerry. Air. Tetris. Steve Jobs. The Social Network. Tech origin stories are a proven box office and awards category. Bungie is the next chapter — and arguably the most dramatic.
The Story

Five guys. One basement. A game that almost killed them — and then changed everything.

It's 1999. Bungie is a scrappy Chicago studio on the brink of collapse after a catastrophic bug in Myth II literally destroys players' hard drives. While the company scrambles to survive, lead developer Jason Jones quietly begins prototyping something new — a game that will eventually become Halo.

What follows is a two-year odyssey of creative brilliance, corporate warfare, impossible deadlines, and the deal that changed everything: Microsoft's acquisition of Bungie, and the birth of the Xbox.

The Conflict

They saved Microsoft.
Microsoft swallowed them whole.

Halo wasn't supposed to be an Xbox game. It was a Mac game. Apple wanted it. Steve Jobs personally courted Bungie. But Microsoft outmaneuvered everyone — acquiring the studio in a deal that made Halo the Xbox's killer app and turned a small indie team into the most important game studio on earth.

The price? Their independence. Their identity. Their souls. The film lives in the tension between creative freedom and corporate power — and the human cost of building something bigger than yourself.

The Players
Jason Jones
The Visionary
Bungie's co-founder and lead programmer. Brilliant, obsessive, allergic to publicity. He built the Halo prototype in near-total secrecy while the company burned around him. Our film's tormented genius.
"I just want to make something that matters."
Jaime Griesemer
The Architect
Design lead and the man who invented Halo's legendary gameplay. His "30 seconds of fun" philosophy became the DNA of the entire franchise. Obsessive, argumentative, brilliant — the one who refused to ship until it felt right.
"If you can't make 30 seconds of fun, you can't make 30 hours."
Joe Staten
The Storyteller
Head of cinematics and the voice of Halo's narrative universe. The heart of the team — funny, passionate, and the one who gives Master Chief a soul. Our emotional anchor.
"Every great game is really just a great story you get to live inside."
Halo 2 Midnight Launch
$125M in 24 hours · november 9, 2004
The Journey
1991
Two Guys in Chicago
Alex Seropian and Jason Jones meet at the University of Chicago. They call themselves Bungie, and start making games for Mac in a basement. Revenue: zero. Ambition: infinite.
1997
Myth Makes Them Real
Myth: The Fallen Lords puts Bungie on the map. Critical darling. Commercial hit. The team grows. The pressure grows.
1999
The Bug That Nearly Killed Them
Myth II ships with a catastrophic bug — the uninstaller deletes entire hard drives. Lawsuits. Panic. Near-bankruptcy. While the world burns, Jason starts building something in secret.
2000
Steve Jobs Wants In
Halo is unveiled at Macworld as a Mac-exclusive title. Jobs personally courts Bungie. The gaming world loses its mind. Then Microsoft calls.
2000
The Microsoft Deal
Microsoft acquires Bungie for $30M. Halo becomes an Xbox exclusive. The team is torn apart. Some call it salvation. Others call it selling their soul.
2001
Halo: Combat Evolved
Xbox launches with Halo as its flagship title. The game is a phenomenon. It redefines the console shooter. Bungie goes from indie darlings to the most important studio on earth.
2004
$125 Million in 24 Hours
Halo 2 launches with the biggest entertainment opening in history. Lines around the block. Midnight mayhem. The gaming industry will never be the same. Neither will Bungie.
"We didn't set out to save Microsoft or launch a console or become the biggest game in the world. We just wanted to make something cool."
— the spirit of bungie, 1999–2004
Our Vision

Not a video game movie.
A movie about people.

This isn't Pixels. This isn't Ready Player One. This is The Social Network for the Xbox generation. A character-driven drama about ambition, friendship, betrayal, and what happens when the thing you built becomes bigger than you.

We're not making a movie about Halo. We're making a movie about the blood, sweat, Mountain Dew, and broken friendships that Halo was built on.

Tone References
The Social Network
The template. Fast dialogue, moral complexity, the cost of genius.
BlackBerry
The energy. Low-budget, chaotic, funny, heartbreaking. Same budget range.
Steve Jobs
The structure. Three acts, three launches, one man's obsession.
Halt and Catch Fire
The heart. What it feels like to build something when nobody believes in you.
$6B Franchise · 81M Players · Zero Films
the greatest untold story in gaming
The Audience

This is a film for gamers and a film
about gamers — for everyone.

3.4B
Global Gamers
Nearly half the planet plays video games. Gaming is no longer niche — it's the dominant entertainment medium. This is a story that resonates with a global audience, not a subculture.
$200B+
Annual Industry
Gaming generates more revenue than film and music combined. Yet there are zero definitive films about the people who built it. This is an untapped cultural goldmine.
25-45
Peak Demo
The Halo generation is now the most valuable media demographic — high disposable income, streaming subscribers, and deep emotional nostalgia for this exact era.
Reachable & Interested
81M+
The Bungie / Halo Universe
The Bungie/Halo universe spans 81 million+ customers globally. Our conservative estimate for reachable, ticket-buying audience is 4.5–6.3 million, based on:
  • BHundreds of thousands of Monthly Active Players (MAU) globally, increasing for major updates and seasonal drops
  • XBungie fans — customers of their later game Destiny, another hugely successful global franchise with 30M+ registered players and 1.5M MAU
  • YBungie fans and beyond — plus all those looking out for the upcoming new game from the studio, Marathon, due out in 2026
  • ABeyond — a 1–2% penetration of hardcore gamers globally (not just Halo) would give an active audience of approximately 33M–66M
General Wider Mainstream
Story First
Our story is crafted to appeal beyond the global gaming community. You don't need to know what an Xbox is to feel the stakes of friendship, ambition, and betrayal.
A-List Cast
The film will be cast to include not only gaming influencers but also mainstream A+ list actor(s) — ensuring crossover appeal and global press coverage.
Transmedia Wave
Gaming IP has been embraced by streamers and broadcasters globally. The Last of Us, Fallout, The Witcher — all achieved global mainstream reach. The appetite is proven.
Beyond the Controller

The Tech Crowd

The Apple vs Microsoft war. Steve Jobs on stage at Macworld. A $30M acquisition that saved a console. This is a Silicon Valley power struggle dressed in Spartan armour. If you watched The Social Network, Steve Jobs, or Blackberry — this is your film.

The Indie Underdog Story

A garage startup vs the biggest corporation on earth. A team that nearly went bankrupt from a bug in their own game, then built the most important console title in history. You don't need to know what an Xbox is to feel that story.

The Nostalgia Economy

Y2K aesthetic is everywhere — fashion, music, design. The early 2000s are having their cultural moment. This film rides a wave already in motion: Barbie, Air, the Wednesday Adams generation rediscovering turn-of-the-millennium culture.

The Friendship Story

At its core, this is about a group of friends who built something extraordinary together — and what happens when success tears them apart. That's not a gaming story. That's a human story. It's Entourage meets The Social Network in a basement full of pizza boxes.

Why Theatrical

Our strategy is to ensure this film
is experienced as well as watched.

Theatrical mirrors how gamers already consume content. They instinctively understand event culture: midnight launches, seasonal drops, LAN parties, conventions, cosplay. Meeting to celebrate gaming is a ritual.

They are not being asked to learn a new behaviour. They are simply relocating it to cinema events. This film will be marketed as an event.

Repeat attendance, opening weekend urgency, and identity-based viewing will be encouraged.

The Event Playbook
AFan nights & community screenings
BDress up — recognisable weapons, equipment & armour
XCall and response, insider gags & easter eggs
YGiveaways, merch drops & meet-and-greets
ABees!!!!
"If you know, you know."
The Script

First draft complete.
Rewrite underway.

The screenplay is inspired by Steve Haske's article for Vice, The Untold History of Halo, and is in active development with two experienced writers shaping the material — balancing historical accuracy with dramatic storytelling, comedy with stakes, and the deeply personal with the culturally epic.

Project Status
TREATMENT FIRST DRAFT REWRITE PACKAGE PRODUCTION
Sam Mazany
LEAD WRITER · FIRST DRAFT

Writer on Tires (Netflix). Brings sharp comedic instincts and authentic geek-culture fluency. Delivered the first draft that established the story's structure, voice, and emotional architecture.

Kevin Leahy
SCREENWRITER · REWRITE

Writer of The Fox. Bringing dramatic weight, structural precision, and elevated character work to the rewrite. Currently shaping the screenplay into its final form.

The Team

Raised by Robots

A production company built for stories at the intersection of technology, culture, and human obsession. We don't just understand this world — we grew up in it.

Lee Murphy
FILMMAKER · PRODUCER
Lee is a filmmaker passionate about bringing true life stories to the screen. He first gained recognition with The Beyond, a hybrid documentary feature film, before leading one of the largest Gen Z-focused video shopping platforms.
Alongside his work in film, he has produced music videos and fashion ads for leading record labels and brands. After stepping away from tech in 2023, he returned to filmmaking, driven by stories that uncover hidden truths and celebrate real-life heroes.
Laurence Jones
SENIOR MEDIA EXECUTIVE
Loz is an award-winning senior media executive with in-depth experience across television, film, social, digital, audio, animation and live.
His work covers multiple genres: documentary, factual, factual entertainment, entertainment, reality, live, music, comedy, kids, both unscripted and scripted. Loz has managed a multitude of high-profile projects, overseeing creative teams from development to delivery, including all aspects of production.
Karen Troop
CONSULTANT EP · PASSION PICTURES
Production Director and Executive Producer at Passion Pictures — the three-time Academy Award-winning production company behind Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In, and game cinematics for League of Legends, Fall Guys, and PlayStation.
Karen brings deep expertise across animation, gaming, and live-action production — having EP'd campaigns for major gaming franchises and overseen creative teams from development to delivery. She sits at the exact intersection of games and film that this project demands.
What We're Looking For

A creative partner and a commercial partner.

We're seeking two things: a creative partner to help finalise the packaging — director, cast, and production strategy. And a commercial partner for equity investment to take the project into production. The script is in rewrite, the story is locked, and the 25th anniversary window is now.

A
Script
In rewrite
B
Creative Partner
Packaging
Y
Commercial Partner
Equity investment
X
Cast
Next phase
A
Production
2026–2027
Bonus Level

The Battle for Bungie

Choose your fighter. Defend Bungie HQ.

← → MOVE   ↑ JUMP   SPACE SHOOT   CHOOSE YOUR FIGHTER

BUNGiE

The untold origin story of the studio

that changed gaming forever.

LEE@RAISEDBYROBOTS.CO
raised by robots · 2026
Raised by Robots