Bungie Leaving Microsoft

Big rumor floating around that the maker of Halo will be leaving Microsoft.

From the rumorville site:
"Apparently MS just wants Bungie to make Halo for the rest of their natural days, and Bungie doesn't like how MS is constantly trying to "handle" everything they do; the way they market their games, the way they interact with their fans (basically the fact that they do appreciate their fans), and how stingie they are with the profits (comparable to the rest of the industry). So as of today they are their own independent entity. They'll probably make Halo 4 for Microsoft, however hey are also free to create new intellectual properties for whatever system they want. (Even though they prefer the xbox platform)"

Course the blogger has zero credibility, but heck, neither do I! So, let's theorize...

Bungie had been making Mac and PC games for 9 years, before Microsoft swooped in and bought them up while they were developing a new FPS epic called Halo for the PC and Mac. Why? MS needed a big money title to sell its dying console the Xbox. Bungie, took the bait and the rest is proprietary history. As a PC gamer, I was hungry for a new epic FPS that wasn't Half-Life. Halo seemed like a good fit. Sadly, once the MS deal happened, PC users didn't see the first game for another 2 years. So, not only was the gameplay and graphics stale, it was also stripped down, lacking a coop multiplayer element. In a time of Battlefield 1942, there were no excuses. Then it happened all over with Halo 2. Late release, no co-op, plus Vista only.

Honestly, this was a good economic move for Bungie (game for a Mac, heh), but its the kind of move that relates to selling ones soul to the Devil. The PC gamer response, was pretty much, "Go fuck yourself Microsoft...and fuck you Bungie for selling out".

So maybe Bungie Studios took this personally, and will actually leave. Maybe we'll just see a new franchise from Bungie for the PC. Purhaps, they'll sign a deal with Sony, and continue pushing innovations from PC FPS. Though, a fair warning to Bungie, You have to be innovative if your gonna survive in the PC market, something Halo was not.