- DEUCE MORELLI
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So here's what happened back then, and what likely would've happened now:
Microsoft buys Bungie in 2000 to make Halo an XBOX exclusive title, as they knew it would sell consoles. TakeTwo gets control and rights to Myth.
Halo 2 and Halo 3 get made. Probably back in 2005, as MS' games division were formulating a strategy for the next several years, Microsoft probably insisted on turning Halo into "Star Trek" or "Star Wars" for video games - movies, books, games et cetera (beyond the books already being made), and wanted Bungie to take up that mantle as a content manager, and to allow other MS studios to create derivative games (i.e. Halo Wars).
Bungie, likely bored from being a one-trick pony, started talks to do something more than Halo, which ended up in Microsoft spinning off Bungie, but retaining the rights to Halo-related intellectual property.
(For those that don't know, spinning off a division is essentially separating from it without technically selling it. Since Bungie then were MS employees, they likely participated in the company stock program; come the agreement to spin Bungie off, MS most likely exchanged a certain amount of employees' company stock for that of the new Bungie LLC, as it was then.)
Bungie, being free to no longer be bored or a one trick pony, signs a publishing deal with Activision that allows Bungie to retain ownership of any IP it creates. Later, with Bungie Aerospace, Bungie restarts its quest for World Domination by creating a consulting division that will likely move into games publishing soon afterward.
The first half was established fact; the second half is what I call logical speculation.