In the wake of Halo 3's tremendous success, there have been rumors circulating all week in the gaming community that Halo 3 developer Bungie would part ways with Microsoft. Today, that rumor was officially confirmed.

Bungie was founded in 1991, but has long been a wholly-owned subsidiary of Microsoft, developing games exclusively for Microsoft’s platforms such as the Xbox, Xbox 360 and PC. Bungie and Microsoft are clearly still working out the specific details, but Bungie will become a (mostly) independent company. I say mostly, because Microsoft will still retain substantial ownership in Bungie, and some sort of exclusive publishing relationship will exist between Microsoft and Bungie.

Microsoft will continue to publish Halo-related games, and will also publish "other future properties developed by Bungie." Because of this relationship, Bungie plans to continue focusing its game development on Microsoft platforms.