I really wish that I could say that I think this is a fake, but, there have been a couple of reports out there and it's no where near time for the April Fools jokes. It would be depressing to see Bungie separate. I'll still buy the games....but it would be depressing.

The biggest point everyone seems to be missing is why would Microsoft being closing up shop BEFORE the holiday season. The holiday season is where consoles and companies are made or broken. The Xbox 360 is, currently, regarded as having the best and largest potential video game library available for customers. On top of that why would they let their largest and most succesful (practically their only) first-tier game studio go? This is a vicious rumour, just because their is smoke does not mean there is a fire. Perhaps Bungie and Microsoft are mum on this is because they could, potentially, be announcing a new IP for the next holiday season? I know, me personally, held out on purchasing a 360 until time got closer for Halo 3. Why would Microsoft close up shop when the dust has yet (in any near future) settle on console and unit sales? I would not imagine hearing this type of announcement until Q2 of 2009, if they were closing up shop. Perhaps Q1 of 2009 at the very very earliest if their sales were so dissapointing they were noicable. Just my 0.02 cents.

Well, outside of a 100% Bungie defection (and subsequent new studio creation), that just might be the only way it could happen for Bungie to "Leave Microsoft". Could it happen? Sure would, but barring any idiocy of Microsofts part (one of those "You will only make Halo games for sure *cracks whip*), I don't see any reason why Bungie shouldn't be able to make whatever they want, whenever they want, as long as it's something that's a "financially viable" venture for everyone involved. We'll see though. What does bother me, is that there's not been any real "No, this isn't happening....." responses from either side (Bungie or Microsoft), so that is troubling and ends up being the real truth of 'What isn't being said....'

Anything is possible. Until the rumor is disproved, I will be watching my MSFT shares very closely.

I think I should post this: Microsoft Corp. today announced it acquired Chicago-based Bungie Software Products Corp., a leading independent developer of action oriented computer and video games. As a result of this acquisition, Microsoft gains exclusive publishing and distribution rights to select Bungie-developed titles, including the highly anticipated sci-fi action epic "Halo." "This acquisition reflects our commitment to growing our business with a strong portfolio of quality games for the PC and Xbox platforms," said Ed Fries, vice president of games publishing at Microsoft. "Bungie's highly talented team consistently delivers award-winning games, and we're looking forward to supporting their creative spirit here at Microsoft." Bungie's development staff will become an independent development studio within the Microsoft Game Division, where it will retain its unique character and edgy personality. Microsoft expects the Bungie team to play a key role in the development of content for the Xbox platform, creating the kinds of innovative technology that have defined its character. The team will also continue developing titles such as "Halo," a revolutionary action game recently nominated for four E3 Game Critics awards, including Best of Show, and heralded as "the first truly amazing game of the next millennium," by top online games Web site Gamespot. "This is an opportunity to combine the strength of two outstanding software companies: Bungie's talent for creating great games and Microsoft's strength in distribution," said Alexander Seropian, founder and CEO of Bungie Software Products. "Microsoft will provide us with the resources and infrastructure we need to continue to build great games and make them available on a worldwide scale. We are also looking forward to helping define the Xbox platform, which may soon be the world's premier game console." In a related announcement, Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., (Nasdaq "TTWO" ) current distributor of Bungie-developed titles, announced it acquired all right, title and interest to select Bungie game properties, including the popular "Myth" game franchise and the upcoming action game "Oni," and has sold its 19.9 percent equity interest in Bungie to Microsoft. Ryan Brant, Chief Executive Officer of Take-Two, said, "This acquisition is a positive for all involved. We have a tremendous amount of respect for Bungie's talents and the contributions it has made to the games industry, and we look forward to working with Microsoft to make Xbox a success." Underscoring Microsoft's commitment to being a leading worldwide games developer and publisher, the acquisition of Bungie follows last year's successful acquisitions of FASA Interactive Technologies Inc. and Access Software Inc., both of which have resulted in the upcoming PC games "MechWarrior™ 4: Vengeance," "Crimson Skies™ " and "Links™ LS 2001," all due out later this year.

I'm pretty sure if Luke Smith was still on 1up Yours he'd be calling BS on this pretty quickly. Why would Microsoft let their most succesful developer go? Did they just want to buy bungie, make millions of dollars, and then cut them loose? It wouldn't make fiscal sense. I also doubt that Bungie would want to leave behind the Halo franchise whether they ever make another Halo or not. Who would be there to make sure Ensemble knows how much a warthog weighs and what the prophet of truths favorite ice cream is? I guessing whether or not Bungie enjoys Microsoft as a parent company doesn't give them the option to leave or not. I'm sure Blizzard would love to be independent of Vivendi Universal and keep all that WoW money to themselves but there is a reason they don't, they are owned buy VU and I'm sure the price for buying back Blizzard, whether by Blizzard itself or another company, is well over what Blizzard has, and the more valuable and profitable they get the higher the price. Much of this, I'm sure, is similar to bungie. I think the more realistic possibility is that someday members of bungie will break off and form a new studio (I hear the name Seeds is available again), but Microsoft selling off the jewel of their developers (sorry Rare), not bloody likely. Unless of course Bill Gates lost bungie in a poker game to Jack Trentton.

Ps3 my rise for world domination if the 360 fails

Microsoft wholly owns Bungie in every sense of the word. They did not contract Bungie, they did not rent Bungie. They OWN Bungie. Ask youselves this(everyone who actually thinks this oculd be real) : If you paid millions for a company that has net you a billion dollar product, would YOU part ways with them for absolutely no good business reason whatsoever? Now imagine you're one of the largest corporations in the world, where money is the absolute bottom line. Yep, fat chance in hell Bungie is going anywhere. Employees might leave to found their own company (like I mentioned with Rare) but Bungie itself as a studio, name and overall brand? Ain't going nowhere. And don't expect some sort of mass exodus either. There's a lot of people who have found steady employment with Bungie. Would most of them honestly risk the financial trouble of starting up another company? These people have mortgages to pay here, folks. Those who leave were probably already planning to leave. There's no helping that. But for most of the company? I can't fathom a good reason for them to split. As for new IPs, now that Bungie is as large as they are, I'm sure if they -blam!- enough Microsoft will send them the resources to do that AS WELL as the next Halo game. MS isn't stupid enough not to feed their cashcow.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Sir Fragula Do I believe this rumour to be true? No. Does it make sense? No...[/quote] For me I do see it as possible. I mean I could have sworn that not too long ago that everything that was not bolted down was being removed on the webcams. Now all we get is them all showing the H2 secrets stuff. In the end though I do not see this as a bad thing at all if it turns out to be true. I am not sure of the deal that MS had with Bungie if it was outright ownership or what, but to me this would let Bungie work on some new IP. Something different without having too many constraints from a parent company.

I am feeling the same way to! I mean if bungie leaves microsoft its over for the halo series! Thats it! You will probably see a new game like halo on ps3! I think really microsoft is leaving the gaming business! They dont have luck with xbox 1 losing 4 billion, than xbox 360 losing about 2 billion including warranties, than halo 3 special edition cracks! Microsoft has bad luck with gaming systems! But they are awesome with there online service! But i really dont want to see halo on ps3! That would suck! But again microsoft owns halo and the series is probably going to be finished after the halo wars game thats it! i will miss the chief, johnson, the covenant and the whole freakin story! Another point is microsoft doesnt pay employess well, thats why peter moore ceo of xbox left them! Truth is xbox fans are going to be screwed im sorry! Ps3 is losing now but in the future xbox does not look bright!

meh. I call fake. [Edited on 10.01.2007 9:14 PM PDT]

MS XBOX is losing a billion dolars a year. I'd bet Bungie wants to jump ship for a higher profit margin on their own IP's. "Microsoft can make about $10 to $12 per game from "third party" titles, but "first party" games such as "Halo 3" and "Gears of War" - a popular shooter game released by Microsoft last year - can bring in several times that amount" So Bungie loses money to Microsoft as Halo is a first person title and they'r enot making enough for their hard work. I say let them leave. XBOX is a sinking ship and the Halo franchise is all it has going for it. READ THIS: http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2007/09/27/microsofts-msft-halo-3-breaks-records-but-still-wont-save-g/ http://www.joystiq.com/2005/09/26/forbes-xbox-lost-microsoft-4-billion-and-counting/ http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/games/halo3/story.html?id=a3895ac7-0a85-449f-943a-6c6beb2608ca&k=35093

I will follow bungie wherever they go...as long as they don't make their next game for MAC.

You see this a lot, the employees dodging questions...etc. If they don't answer with a yes or no, there would be less rumors spreading (I think). Since if he said "Yes" then there would be TONS of rumors about why and who's going to pick up Bungie. If he said "No" there would still be Tons of Rumors of, did MS bribe them, or is it a cover-up...etc. Rumors are malicious, and should be taken for a grain of salt when it comes down to whats happening.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Sir Fragula Do I believe this rumour to be true? No. Does it make sense? No...[/quote] A clever dogde by a Bungie employee. Screams no while not answering anything. Well guess what. Life doesn't make any sence either. Just like reality. And Jello

why would you people believe any rumor who's source is a friend of a friend of a friend's uncle. gullible as sh1t i say. there's basically no proof. here let me leak some info on these here b.net forums: mario is going multiplatform, my dog's former owner's girlfriend's child's daddy who's locked up in jail but talks on the internet with an insider at nintendo told me so. I take it no one here knows how businesses work. microsoft OWNS bungie, there's no contract. Microsoft owns majority (maybe 100%) of bungie's stock. Whoever owns the most stock in the company makes the decisions, hence, Microsoft runs it. If M$ sells those shares to someone else, they are the stupidest f.ing company in the history of video games, and microsoft is one of the best when it comes to running a company - duh. Even in the unlikelyhood that m.s does do this, they'll never let go of halo. ur investments are safe. i mean wow, that's all this is. go play halo 3. the game is awesome [Edited on 10.01.2007 7:48 PM PDT]

As for the timing of this announcement, per the responses above.... today is October 1, the first day of a new financial quarter. The original email indicated that the NDA expired today, which ties out to that reasoning - no announcement until the 1st quarter (MS Q1 2008 ended Sept 30) was over. I would expect any OFFICIAL response to be scheduled for Friday, as that is the typical day for bad news, but with all of the rumour-mongering going on now, I would not be surprised if any annoucement is moved up earlier. The buzz in the video game circles here in Seattle is that "something" is going down (and this is independent of the news stories). What it is specifically, noone has 100% proof either way.

While I think it would be a mistake to dismiss this out of hand, I really have to agree that it is not at all likely. A few good points were already made, such as the fact that announcements are not really made on Saturdays. One thing that really stands out to me as a counter to the rumor is this site itself. With the huge load that the site is now taking due to the theater of Halo 3, and all the server space that will be needed for the fileshare, I really just don't see how Bungie has the funds to support it. So while I think that this has a small amount of merit, if I had to bet, it would be against the rumor, strongly favored.

Was this supposed to be the Huge prelaunch announcement that never seemed to appear?

I know this is a bungie site anddd yes i love bungie BUT ms wouldn't need to hang up the xbox...the system is selling more software than any of the other consoles combined. anywho guess we will just have to wait and see

I just realized...if they did have a deal, OF COURSE it would be seven years.

Y'know, none of us know what the terms were when MS bought Bungie way back in 2000. Bungie seemed to have an awful lot of autonomy, and they're the only first party studio I can think of that gets equal or greater billing than MS on the games they make (you don't see Microsoft on the Halo 3 title screen, do you?). Since Bungie was employee-owned at the time, they all had to agree to a deal, and the terms of that deal have been super-secret-squirrel ever since then. It's entirely possible that the clause included a certian amount of autonomy, and the ability to amacably split from MS after seven years or so. I've always wondered if Bungie could and would split from MS after completion of the Halo games. It seems like MS's interactive division has been going downhill for a while, ever since Ed Fries left. I'm just saying, don't rule anything out. I like the idea of a Rare/Nintendo relationship. MS owns 49% of Bungie, and Bungie becomes a second party developer, but they can do whatever they want without having to worry about horrendous deadlines or whoring out Master Chief to appear on disgusting soda. -GtG- [Edited on 10.01.2007 6:50 PM PDT]

This could possibly be the megaton that G4 was suppose to spill on Thursday. The problem I have is that no one from Bungie has put this rumor to rest which makes me believe that it is true. We will find out hopefully soon. If so Microsoft better hang up the xbox now. [Edited on 10.01.2007 6:40 PM PDT]

Deep down we all want to believe these sorts of claims, just for the sake of witnessing something groundbreaking. But everyone needs to calm down. Picture this shallow story being left behind in a month after Bungie confirms nothing of the sort - it was pointless. Even if it is true, there's no way in telling until we receive official confirmation.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Anton P Nym -- Steve won't dismiss it out of hand, but the way to bet is that this is just another rumour made up by a sad panda with too much time on his/her/its hands.[/quote] You sound like you have someone in mind, Steve, or --Steve whichever one of you reads this.