You would have thought Microsoft would have learned their lesson with Mechwarrior and how that property was trashed by them and then rotted.

MS cannot compete outside of their monopoly titles.

...A good thing! Forcing a decent load of developers (and they are decent) to sit down and make a series of over-hyped run of the mill shooters which for some reason seem to make consoletards ejaculate in their pants when the name is mentioned, is a bad thing. Now they're freed from the oppressive bonds of Microsoft. Perhaps they'll produce something for the PS3 that equates to what Bioshock was for the XBox 360. (I.e. Probably the best FPS/Story game developed for that platform.)

Anybody would think MS - who I don't particularly like had a limited knowledge of the games market...

Microsoft bought the leading 3D/animation company SOFTIMAGE in 1994 and sold it to Avid four years later. Now Bungie. I explain this phenomenon here:

"Bungie: Creative ’sharks’ can’t survive at Microsoft"

http://counternotions.com/2007/10/05/bungie-creative-sharks-cant-survive-at-microsoft/

That's harsh man. I went from MS to Bungie and loved it there. Bouncing back to MS, but I sure will miss most of the guys. (which, btw, include tons of new MS and fresh blood).

Just because we have projects to work on, we're told what to write, doesn't mean we dont have creative sides.

I just dont tell you what I write, or anyone else for that fact, because if I did, people would yell: "HE's a microsoft employee writing *nix code!!" and articles would get published for silly things like that. I love my job and love my side projects. I will keep doing this till I retire.

If you do sell your soul to the devil, you can buy it back.

I dont blame them for wanting to go independent again... A life just making Halo sequels? Urgh, how dull.