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Unconfirmed overnight Internet rumours suggest Bungie, developer of multi-million selling FPS Halo 3, may be about to part ways with its parent company Microsoft.
Jacob Metcalf, aka 8bitjoystick, claims in a blog hosted by seattlepi.com, the online version of US newspaper The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, that Bungie has left the publisher because it “doesn’t like how MS is constantly trying to ‘handle’ everything they do; the way they market their games, the way they interact with their fans and how stingie(sic) they are with the profits“.
Metcalf’s source is “a friend of mine who has someone close to them that works at Bungie“. He claims that while Microsoft will keep the rights to the Halo franchise, and Bungie will probably make Halo 4, “they are also free to create new intellectual properties for whatever system they want“.
Microsoft has so far declined to comment on the rumour and the previously vocal Bungie development team has kept quiet too, which has led some observers to believe the rumour may have more credence than initially thought.
In an interview with Pro-G at the UK launch of the game, Lee Wilson, cinematic designer and Joe Tung, multiplayer producer, said the team was interested in exploring new games.
Wilson said: “There’s a lot of people who have been working on Halo much longer than us two have and they’re really interested in exploring new games, new stories, and whatever comes out of those conversations is what we’re going to pursue. We’re still going to make games for us.“
If true, the move would amount to one of the game industry’s most shocking and puzzling splits, considering how successful the Halo franchise has been for Microsoft’s Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles.
Halo 3 earned more than £84m ($170m) in sales in its first 24 hours on release, according to Microsoft, and set the record for the most money earned in a day by an entertainment product, topping figures set by film Spiderman 3.
Update: Microsoft reps have issued the following statement: “There’s been no such announcement. We continue to celebrate the tremendous success of the global phenomenon that is Halo 3.”
We’ll bring you the latest on this rumour as soon at we get it.
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