I love press releases, they are so full of crap. Just look at the headlines of Microsoft’s announcement that Halo-maker Bungie is leaving them: “Microsoft and Bungie Studios to Evolve Relationship”. That makes it sound like they’re taking their partnership to the next level – when what it really boils down to is that Bungie is leaving. Why not use “Bungie and Microsoft to Part Ways”?

Sub-headline: “Companies to forge new long-term relationship.” What’s more long-term then one company owning another one – which of course was the case.

While it is cool of Microsoft to let Bungie go – which they didn’t have to do – headlines like this are ridiculous. Just about every other source on the story seems to suggest the parting was more Bungie going to Microsoft and saying something like “look if we work our asses off and do a really great job on Halo 3, can we go forward as an independent company?” – and not Microsoft going to Bungie and saying “Hey guys we thinks it’s great that you want to be more independent; we think you’re going to do even better if you can develop for other platforms like the PS3, Wii, and Mac gaming.” – which is how the PR reads.

While I’m often very critical of Microsoft, I have given them props for doing an all around good to great job with the Xbox and certainly with Halo. That seems to be one of the few divisions within the company that actually gets it, and now they’re losing a big piece, a piece that was instrumental in moving the first and and now second version of Microsoft’s gaming console.

While I hate to boil everything down to Mac vs. PC, there are some interesting ties that Bungie has with Apple – for instance did you know that Halo was actually first shown off at a MacWorld event before Microsoft bought the company in 2000? Bungie of course also made the big Mac gaming hit Marathon in the 90s.

This one is pretty funny too – Five Reasons Why the Bungie-Microsoft Split Is A Good Move For Microsoft. Okay, yes, those are all decent points if you absolutely have to search for some way to spin this positive from Microsoft’s angle. Of course none of those points are better for Microsoft than one alternative: Bungie staying with Microsoft. All of these are based on either Microsoft’s incompetence (spread too thin) or bad chemistry (disgruntled employees). Sure they’ll make money with their new minority stake if someone else buys Bungie, but one thing Microsoft does not need anymore of is money – they need a system seller for the Xbox, and they just lost that.