Im just going to re-post my original post in all these threads: MS owns Bungie FULLY, which means they cannot leave. The employees can leave if not under contract, but bungie itself cannot and neither can the halo franchise or anything that bungie has worked on up to right now. Secondly, MS wouldn't go "hey, here's a new building, millions in bonuses and you have access to anyone you want in the greatest software company in the world but you can leave now if you want, and hell, we won't even charge you anything". We are talking about MS here, the company that was smart enough to hold on to their license for windows back in the day instead of just selling it. If I understood everything right when MS bought Bungie, they made sure that they would give Bungie complete creative control over everything they do. This means they can develop new IP's, hell Pimps at Sea could actually come out if they want to. Is there even a small chance they may "leave", yes but in a weird way. Bungie would become a second party developer which means they exclusively dev for 360 but not MS, if that makes any sense. Basically, it gets MS off the hook of dev costs for new IP's (as they wouldn't have to publish it and develop it) but also retains their greatest asset in the gaming industry. You will NEVER see a bungie game on a ps3 or a wii. Why? Devs hate designing for ps3, MS will still give them some backend support, and it will be worded into any split deal but if you are a betting man, Id bet on them staying right where they are.