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There has been a persistent rumor circulating the internet this week positing a split between Microsoft and Halo developers Bungie. The rumor began from website 8bitJoystick and their claims that an unrevealed insider source passed the information along. While initially dismissed by most, the rumor gained momentum when it was confirmed by Game Informer magazine, who published the following.
Our source stated that Bungie is tired of Making Halo, and didn’t want to do future Halo games. For an unstated, but significant amount of money, Bungie shareholders bought the studio name back from Microsoft. Our source also revealed that even though Microsoft will retain the rights to Halo, Microsoft also has the right of first refusal on future games This means that Microsoft has the first shot at publishing Bungie’s future titles. How this will come into play if Bungie decides they want future game X to appear on the PlayStation 3 and Wii alongside an Xbox 360 release will make things quite interesting.
Bungie has so far declined to comment, while Microsoft has responded with “There’s been no such announcement. We continue to celebrate the tremendous success of the global phenomenon that is Halo 3 .”
So is the rumor true? It seems unlikely that Microsoft would allow Bungie, the developers behind Microsoft’s most popular franchise and the company that set entertainment records with Halo 3’s release, depart from the fold. However, there are an unusual number of separate sources corroborating the improbable rumor. While most business sense points to no on this rumor, we’ll have to wait and see.