[quote]. I've read that people high up Microsoft, many who know little about game making, are allowed to have drastic creative decisions, yet no one calls them out because of their position.[/quote] You want to know why MS has the power to do that? It's because they gave 343 the money to make the game and most of all MS owns Halo. How can 343 make an independent Halo when they don't own the IP? [quote]But if 343i became independent from Microsoft, they may not need to generalise since they can sell Halo on playstation and PC as well. [/quote] I would love to see them do that. Imagine the lawsuits they would be getting by selling MS IP on other systems without the approval by MS and then there's the biggest lawsuit of stealing MS IP.