Bungie, the developer of the hugely popular Halo series, is to part company with owner Microsoft.

In a statement, the two firms said they would "forge a new long-term partnership" based around new games.

The move will surprise many in the games industry, despite rumours about a split in recent weeks.

Bungie is now a privately held company in which Microsoft holds a minority stake. Recent release Halo 3 racked up $300m in its first week on sale.

The Halo series has sold more than 18 million copies worldwide since the first game was launched in 2001. Halo 3 has become the fastest selling game of all time following its launch on 25 September, with more than three million copies already sold.

Bungie now has a long-term publishing agreement with Microsoft Game Studios for future Halo titles.

Harold Ryan, studio head at Bungie, said Microsoft's platforms would remain the firm's "primary focus" but the move opens up the possibility of the studio developing for other consoles.

"Bungie is like a shark. We have to keep moving to survive," said Jason Jones, Bungie founder and partner.

Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios, said the company was "supporting Bungie's desire to return to its independent roots".

He said Microsoft would to invest in Halo entertainment property with Bungie and other partners, such as Peter Jackson, on "a new interactive series set in the Halo universe".

"We look forward to great success with Bungie as our long-term relationship continues to evolve through Halo-related titles and new IP (intellectual property) created by Bungie," he added.

in b4 vee's "omgz!! halo 3 is cumming to the ps3! LOLZ I winzorzs the argument! I owned all of you n00bs with my super sweet flaming skills!"

I'd just like to point out it says halo will still remain exclusive to the xbox, with a long term publishing agreement for halo.

so keep in in your pants vee, of course, you probably already busted at the title. because our a fag gamer like that.

i read about half of the post when i saw the title

Bungie Parts From Microsoft !!!!!!!!

i thought bungie was splitting up from microsoft but as i read does part mean partnership or what and ffs i was like omfg halos coming to ps3 lol for all the xbox 360 owners but not now :(

thats would be the only argument for me to buy a xbox 360 apart from the gamertag
feature

so what exactly happening is bungie splitting from microsofr and develop for ps3 or what

from what I take on it, they're splitting from microsoft to make games for other platforms, including ps3/wii/handhelds whatever they want, but the big thing is microsoft first secured halo before they let them split.

I'd imagine it's be a lot like R* with the ps2. they kept the big game, gta, to the ps2 but still developed smaller multi platform games. nobody wants exclusivity of these smaller games, and bungie just needed to break free from microsoft to go in the cross platform route.

still, I don't expect anything too big to come from them. every game company seems to always have on big game, and then a bunch of bastard games just to make money. everyone does it.

I swear this was a rumour proven false...is it official or something now?

And yes, Microsoft to hold the rights to the Halo brand, but Bungie are now free to develop OTHER game series on any console they desire.
I still find it weird that Microsoft would just let the company that earned them billions of dollars and basically made the Xbox not fail (and therefore create the 360) just like that...

Even if Bungies left microsoft, i still wouldnt want Halo 3 on the PS3.

Its a piece of overhyped shit. Loads of better games then it coming out.

Yet another Sony fan in denial....

My original post is from the BBC website and when i first saw it ,it said BREAKING NEWS

Its overhyped. Even a idiot like you should agree to that.

It really is.. I mean i tried playing the story line ... yeah thats just really boring.. same thing over and over and over again.. here shoot your way through these guys and then these guys.. drive through these guys.. blah blah blah even the multi-player gets boring after a while.. i mean if you think about thats pretty much the ONLY reason why it's like so much...

I can't wait until a GTA game makes a multi-player on a console system.. (aka ps3) .. Of course.. it would probably come out on the 360 as well.. but anyway... yeah halo is over hyped.

always so negative. another game for ps3 would be good, even if its "over hyped". you wouldnt have to play it, but i bet some, if not most, of the ps3 owners would love to see halo3 on their beloved system.

id like to have the option of halo on the ps3 but i got bored of the earlier ones way to easily GTA4 will be something new eg cars etc in multiplayer

but id still like the option the one thing that will be good for ps3 and Bungie is the way the incorporated a website and the game

but yh i do agree with vette much companies only have 1 major series and thats it

but after all the more developers the better