As of 8:00am PDT, Bungie is now a separate entity and will work in tight partnership with Microsoft. The software giant will own equity of the new spin-off and both will share ideas and intellectual property.
The press release is kind of weird:
“Working with Microsoft was great for us, it allowed us to grow as a team and make the ambitious, blockbuster games we all wanted to work on. And they will continue to be a great partner. But Bungie is like a shark. We have to keep moving to survive. We have to continually test ourselves, or we might as well be dolphins. Or manatees,” said Jason Jones, Bungie founder and partner.
But it looks legit as we received it from a few trusted sources. What does this mean for the company? Not much. They’ll still be working almost solely for Microsoft and producing Halo titles. Could it mean Halo on other consoles? Very doubtful. MS wouldn’t give up it’s $300 million-in-the-first week cow.