We'd covered the rumors earlier this week, but the news is now official: Bungie and Microsoft are parting ways. As stated in The Official Bungie Press Release, the brilliantly successful Halo developer (Halo 3 Sales have already surpassed $300 Million) will move forward as a privately-held independent company. Microsoft will continue to have a minority stake in the company. From the release:

"This exciting evolution of our relationship with Microsoft will enable us to expand both creatively and organizationally in our mission to create world-class games," said Harold Ryan, studio head for Bungie. "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."

The move is a real shocker; typically you hear about promising studios being bought by big developers or media companies. Then, often a few years later, you hear about the studio closing or being split up. One thing you never hear? Studios once acquired going back to being independent! Until now. It's a remarkable move.

Apple fans still refer to June 19, 2000 -- the day Microsoft acquired Bungie -- as "Black Monday." Prior to that Halo was going to be a Macintosh game. But apparently the Bungie crew love developing for the Xbox, as they'll continue to use it as a primary platform. The press release also hints at some new IP to come, so we're expecting big things...


Speaking of big things, after nearly two years of being your host here at FilePlanet, starting next week I'll be moving back to sister-site GameSpy.com, which I helped to launch eight years ago. It's a homecoming that we're celebrating with a TeamFortress 2 LAN Party. If you'd like to continue getting daily updates from yours truly, Sign up for the GameSpy daily HTML Newsletter, and keep your eyes on GameSpy.com for more of my writing.

Meanwhile, Justin "Ferret" Ramos -- my right-hand-man for the last couple of years -- will be stepping up to grace the pages of the FileBlog. He'll keep you up to date on everything that belongs on your hard drive.

      -Fargo