The rumor is true. Bungie branched off from Microsoft and is moving in the direction of becoming an independent company. That doesn’t mean Bungie is about to switch gears and develop for other platforms or does it? Harold Ryan from Bungie explains, "We will continue to develop with our primary focus on Microsoft’s platforms; we greatly value our mutually prosperous relationship with our publisher, Microsoft Game Studios, and we look forward to continuing that affiliation through ‘Halo’ and beyond."
OK. So the plan for Bungie is to work with the Xbox 360 and whatever Microsoft has in their pocket. However, the statement is pretty clear that Bungie is, at the very least, thinking about developing for other consoles.
What about the multimillion dollar Halo franchise? Microsoft is going to continue it with other partners like Ensemble Studios who is working on Halo Wars and Peter Jackson. Meanwhile, Bungie is going to be developing new intellectual properties at their home base in Kirkland WA.
