Bungie getting divorced from Microsoft?

This rumour first started circulating yesterday but at the time there was no real weight to attach to it and we were quite sceptical of the whole thing. Bungie ending its partnership with Microsoft and going solo once more? Never happen and I personally told Tim that it would almost definitely not happen. I thought it would be more likely that every developer would just leave independently and would form a new company.

Well, I might have been wrong. It's rare, but it happens.

The rumour originally started off a bit dubiously on the Seattle Post Intelligencer Blogs when Jake Metcalf said he had "a friend who has someone close that works at Bungie" and who had mentioned that Bungie wanted to split from Microsoft Game Studio.

"Apparently MS just wants Bungie to make Halo for the rest of their natural days, and Bungie doesn't like how MS is constantly trying to 'handle' everything they do," said Jake. Supposedly a deal was being fleshed out which would let Microsoft keep the rights to Halo but would let Bungie go solo.

When contacted by a number of different gaming journalists, Microsoft said only that it could not confirm or deny the rumour.

Now GameInformer has stepped into the fray however and has said it has also had contact with a Bungie staffer who tells a similar story. The new source remains anonymous but has confirmed that Bungie has now bought back its own company from Microsoft for an "unspecified but significant amount of money".

Knowing how much money Halo has made for Microsoft, we're betting that the actual figure is going to be mind-blowingly huge.

So, it's still a rumour right now but it's looking to be more and more like fact with every passing moment. We're busy chasing up our own sources right now, but if you want to drop us a tip or share some thoughts then let us know in the forums.