Over the last few days, reports have raged that Bungie has bought its freedom from the lumbering beast that Bill built.

The common thread amongst the "insider sources" in each report is that Microsoft wants to milk Halo for all it's worth, but Bungie doesn't want to be a one-trick pony, and as such has shelled out more than a few bucks to break loose.

On the Mac side, this has fueled speculation that Bungie may be returning to its roots and once again develop for Mac side-by-side with other platforms. In reality, that's about as likely as Steve Balmer saying "Decaf please, I have to give a keynote today."

04 Oct 2007

One report says that even if Bungie splits, Microsoft will maintain rights of first refusal on any game Bungie makes in the future. Even if that is false, and Bungie gets out scott-free, releasing games in parallel is just not something that major studios seem to have much interest in.

Getting games out for different consoles at the same time is hard enough, getting them out for PC is
even harder, and getting them out for Mac... well, you know. As EA showed earlier this year, when it comes crunch time the lowest-seller is going to lose, and that lowest seller is almost always guaranteed to be the Mac.

Not that this should matter much. Pretty much any Mac user who really enjoys these big blockbuster-type games has already either bought a console or installed Boot Camp.

The real Mac gamers, however, don't even bother with such second-rate titles. We know that computer gaming perfection exists in only one place: the Escape Velocity series.

Cap'n Hector pwnz Master Chief.