Bungie

I got this today:
Kicking bungie to the curb just because all the senior management quits enmasse? That's cold, man.
Refering to this, appearently: http://www.gamersyde.com/forum_8_22985_1_en.html

So heres my big secret. You should google Bungie + Microsoft + separation this week.You know that big ol BILLION dollar franchise Bungie has created for Microsoft, to show their appreciate Microsoft is letting Bungie leave. Of course Microsoft gets to keep all rights to the Halo franchise, but as today Bungie no longer part of Microsoft. Ask anyone who works there to search the global address book, they're no longer in there. Microsoft was supposed to release the press release today but if they wait till the 10/6 the impact wont effect the quarterly results. However today is the actual official date and the day the NDAs expire, however you still didn't hear this from me.""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; the way they market their games, the way they interact with their fans (basically the fact that they do appreciate their fans), and how stingie they are with the profits (comparable to the rest of the industry). So as of today they are their own independent entity. They'll probably make Halo 4 for Microsoft, however hey are also free to create new intellectual properties for whatever system they want. (Even though they prefer the xbox platform)"

I have no idea if it's true, and thought it a mildly interesting rumor. I'm at a a large industry trade show in Boston (hooray!) this week, doing a fair bit of press around our new payments product and offically launching the Capital Markets strategy I've been slaving away on for the past 9 months. Up until now I;ve had a lot of good questions about High Performance Computing and some arcane questions about how to write (and run) parallel code in automated trade alogrithms for buy side firms. Out of the blue I got asked by a reporter (I think for her own curiousity since her publication has nothing to do with the gaming industry).

"Any comment on the Bungie spinout?"

GAK!

I answered simply with, "you obviously know more than I do!"

AFAIK, it's just a rumor. There is no internal info to which I am privvy, but that's par for the course.

Details as events warrent.

gak!