[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] WileEAmerican Anyone ever think that maybe this was a part of the plan? Bungie would do the halo games then after that M$ would give them freedom. You know as a part of the orginal deal when they acquired Bungie. After all the x-box would have never survived with out halo and no one would have bought the 360 with out halo3. I know the only reason i got a 360 was because of H3. Now that Halo is over (as far as Bungie is concerned) they are going to go their separate ways.[/quote]No. A deal in a purchasing contract like that would have to be made public. Bungie may be a secretive company, but Microsoft's business dealings are subject to open scrutiny because Microsoft is a publicly owned company. Stuff like this just does not happen -- the implausibility of a deal like this is beyond comprehension. Some of you indicated that it might be possible if Bungie's entire creative team decided to band together and up-and-leave Bungie unless Microsoft gives Bungie its freedom. This would still not be enough. As long as Microsoft owns the Bungie name, it will make money -- regardless of who the creative team is, after Halo, any software title with the name "BUNGIE" on the cover is guaranteed to ship at least a million units, if not millions more. Bungie has the most fantastic software developers in the business, for sure, but the name Bungie is extremely valuable. Like I said before, any executive responsible for a secret deal simply releasing Bungie in exchange for some kind of bizarre deal would be burned by an angry mob of Microsoft shareholders. This is simply not the way the business world works. This rumor has no merit.