Whoa... Looks like the shit might hit the fan when this news gets out. Watch the industry start claiming this as the end of MS in the console industry.

I am standing by my source. I have no reason to doubt this.

you dumbass, they cant lave , rodney king = bungie = microsoft. dipstick

"8bitjoystick.com
E-Zine that needs hits."

lmao

Hah, you people are funny. What kind of sense would that make for Microsoft? None.

Yeah and pigs fly. Did you hear about the one where Disney let go of Pixar.

MS just lost bizarre I dont think they would want to loose Bungie.

your source is 1) wrong on the address book thing, and 2) spouting total nonsense. dumbest rumor ever award.

They are all still in the internal address book. In fact there are MORE of them now. What's that say to you?

All the bungie guys are in the address book still. Infact there are more of them now.

Your source lies.

Only an idiot would post this rumor. Microsoft OWNS Bungie. They can't be "released" to run as a company on their own. They don't even exist as a seperate studio any more. In theory, Microsoft could "sell" the Bungie name to another publisher, but why would they do that?

(long time reader)

It makes me sad that you even bothered to post this. Ugh, please don't make me stop reading!

http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/halo-developer-to-leave-microsoft-report/2007/10/02/1191091078010.html

Success, you made it to a newspaper. Of course, once everyone realises how full of crap this is, it won't really work for you. Microsoft owns Bungie, it's not like an employee is leaving. If some of the staff are unhappy, they'll leave and start a new company. Microsoft wouldn't give up the name for no reason, they're hang onto every copyright and legal entitlement they have.

So how does Bungie, who is 100% owned by Microsoft leave Microsoft...

I still am standing by my confidential source inside the Redmond loop.

it seemed to me with first halo game bungie were reluctant to join microsoft because microsoft wanted to make it xbobx only game think bungie wanted to put it on the pc first rather than the xbox

Wow, so they can now return to the Mac...

After all Halo was originally designed for the Mac before Microsoft bought them...

Good for everyone! Bungie gets creative control back, Microsoft gets their franchise. Isn't this a Win-Win?

lmao it worked, you got "readers" on your site! Bungie is owned by Microsoft, hence the name "Bungie Studios"

Come on, people. Mergers and spin-offs are a fact of business life, and you can bet that it doesn't matter how embedded a division is - they can be sold or spun-off. This report might be rubbish, but it could certainly happen.

Way to go with the spelling!

Bungie make me proud!

I can attest that Bungie is officially purchasing Microsoft Corp!

heh i wonder how stupid all these people will feel when the announcement finally comes?

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/14693/Rumor-Bungie-Is-Leaving-Microsoft/

And thus, the iGame was created.

what an officially bad website.. never coming here again

Ok, for starters, who ever thinks that M$ would get rid of Bungie are complete idiots. They made the end of Halo 3 so that Master chief could continue in another series so why would M$ want to get rid of a series that isn't dead? All it is, is dormant for a couple of years and then will make another. Plus they are going to release Halo Wars quickly... I have to hand it to the person that made this rumor though. You got your 15 minutes of fame. But now your as worthless as they come

My friend of a friend. I lol'd.

This is BS. You just did this to get traffic to your site.

Why would Bungie leave MS? Microsoft bought them just so they could get the Halo franchise on the Xbox and eventually the PC. Does anyone remember where the Halo franchise would had landed if MS didn't buy Bungie? It was going to be on Macs.

Plus this has no logic sense. Halo 3 has been out for a week. If Bungie does leave, then who makes all the new downloadable content for Halo 3?

Once everyone realizes this is bullshit no one is ever going to come back to your site. You might as well try to get legit news to bring traffic to your site than post misleading news.

Ok. From a business stand point. Why would Microsoft get rid of their most profitable investment in their Xbox division, Bungie, just because some employee isn't happy about work? Really? Does that make sense to you? Are you on crack? The Xbox 360 is barely starting to come out even, not even taking into consideration the Xbox1's 4 billion dollar losses. Halo 2 and Halo 3, made $125million and $170million dollars respectively, for 1st day sales for Microsoft. They are not about to let the tool that generated these kinds of 1st day sales go just because some employees are disgruntled. Microsoft bought Bungie, Rare, and Lionhead. Out of the 3 the only company that has pulled its own weight has being Bungie. I guarantee that Microsoft would rather sell either Rare or Lionhead before selling Bungie. Bungie is Microsoft's crown jewel. We will see another Halo, and I'm betting my ass off on the next Halo being a Xbox3 launch title(I think it won't be related to the original trilogy)or a mid Xbox3 life cycle game. But meanwhile we'll probably see a new franchise from Bungie that is not related to the Halo universe sometime within the next 2 years.

On the Bungie side of things, Bungie would not have had the kind of success had it not been purchased by Microsoft. Microsoft gave them the opportunity to release a launch game, for the Xbox. That in itself was a huge window of opportunity for Bungie which it wouldn't have had, if they weren't bought out by the company now under Steve Ballmers reign.

I'm betting this announcement is just Bungie's next title. Something not related to Halo.

Come on people...really...why would they let Bungie go, even if they could why? Their in the middle of "Halo Wars" Comics, Peter Jackson...need I say more???? "Get Real"!

It's a trilogy. They're not making Halo 4. That would ruin EVERYTHING. (Unless they waited a few years and made another trilogy star wars style)
I don't know anything about Bungie leaving, but Microsoft won't let them go easy. Plus when Bungie does separate, it has to be a bloody coup. It says so in their seven steps to world domination.

If they made another game related to halo, it would be a different story line completely.

I don't know for a fact if your speculation is right or wrong but your statement that bungie and its employees are not in the global address book anymore is wrong. I just checked.

Conor is right. The Halo trilogy is over. But that doesn't mean that Master chief is done. For you guys that say the ending, you guys know the famous last words of the MC. "Wake me when you need me!" Whats this mean? Maybe nothing, or maybe that he will return for another reason. But as for Bungie leaving M$. HAHAHAHA, you guys are so hilarious in thinking anything like this would happen... Especially after they broke all media records for the first day.

That is insane! If they do, it might be in good times since the Halo 3 run has ended it might be a good idea to look for multi platform games. Most developers are going that route.

Considering that bungie is owned by M$ I REALLY doubt that they are going to be going to any other platform.

If this is true, this would be an excellent move on Bungie's part. It would enable them to stop restricting themselves to just Halo, and they'd be able to make more money by selling games for all systems (PS3 and Wii)

I think everybody here who says that you are totally wrong need to get their heads out of the sand. Why isn't Microsoft flatly denying this? Why has Bungie gone dark? BTW, if you don't know what going dark is, it means KEEP QUIET AND HOPE PEOPLE DON'T ASK AND YOU HOPE THEY FORGET.

I look at the silence as deafening. There is Seattle PI reporter who asked Robbie Bach whether the rumours were true about Bungie leaving and guess what, he gave an evasive and obtuse answer.

That usually means something is up. Now it might not be all that 8bitJoystick says but it is probably very close.

If Microsoft makes an announcement, it will be after the stock market closes this Friday. Best time for a company to announce bad news to the market so the stock doesn't get pummeled immediately and hope for cooler heads on Monday.

As for this being a major money maker for Microsoft, no question, it helped to define the Xbox brand but the idea that companies don't spin off or sell successful subsidiaries is total bunk. Anybody who says that has no concept of business.

Microsoft is quite finicky about what they choose to spend and what they choose to discard.

BTW folks, what drives the profits for Microsoft, Windows and Office, not Xbox or Halo.
Microsoft is not in the business of making games just to please hard core gamers like yourselves, they are here to make MONEY! They closed FASA studios partially because Shadowrun wasn't going to sell enough to recoup the costs to develop it.

I can understand the devs at Bungie wanting to create games for multiplatforms. It is a matter of survival and diversifying. There will always be platform exclusives but most of the time, games are available on more than one platform so a company can better recoup costs and protect themselves if one console is no longer being produced or the console maker quits.

It official and true. The press release is here:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/oct07/10-05BungieEvolvesPR.mspx

He who laughs last laughs longest ...

... muwahahahahahahahahaha ;-)

To the ones who had their heads in the sand, I hate to say this but I TOLD YOU SO. To all the skeptics and flamers, you owe Jake a big apology! If Bungie and Microsoft had flatly denied this from the beginning, I would have discounted this from the beginning but the silence spoke volumes.

If more details come out, I will be curious if Microsoft gets first right of refusal on any games produced by Bungie. Otherwise, we might see games for the Wii or the PS3 in the next year or so.

To those at the top of this post saying it was all lies: HA!

Almost everyone who commented on this artical must feel pretty stupid now. Nice scoop. It's a shame that if you're not big time, you're not taken seriously. And so it goes...

-Rust.

Although I would say that the "you heard it hear first folks" in the headline was only asking for flamers.

-Rust.

umm yeah its true to a dgree but if microsoft still owns part of iti aint see how there gonna let them make games for wii and ps3.

--- but we will see.

--- btw there will be no halo 4.

---this could be good for bungie and mae them like a god amongst the gamer communuty if they do make games for ps3 and wii.

but i just dont see them putting halo on th other two consoles. halo is halo and if you put it on wii and ps3 it wouldnt be HALO. it would be a crappy imitation of it. hopfully they will start a new series.

One word,that I bet none of these flaming tools have heard.... ONI

Wow, I had no idea this even happened since it was in my first week of Peace Corps service. It's also a bit disappointing the people that called you a jackass for breaking the story didn't come back and eat the crap they threw at you.

Good job on the story and way to stick by your guns!