This press release has the surprising news that Bungie and Activision have signed a 10-year deal for an exclusive, worldwide partnership, saying "The groundbreaking alliance will provide Bungie its first such partnership since splitting off from Microsoft in 2007, significantly broadening its global reach by providing the resources and support to develop, distribute and release games worldwide on multiple platforms and devices." Word is: "Under the terms of the agreement, Activision will have exclusive, worldwide rights to publish and distribute all future Bungie games based on the new intellectual property on multiple platforms and devices. Bungie remains an independent company and will continue to own their intellectual property. Additional terms of the agreement were not disclosed." Microsoft acquired Bungie back in 2000, but in 2007 a plan was announced to return the independence of the Halo developer, though at the time is was stated that Microsoft Game Studios, which owns the Halo IP, would retain an equity share in the company. "We chose to partner with Activision on our next IP because of their global reach, multi-platform experience and marketing expertise," said Harold Ryan, President of Bungie. "From working together over the past nine months on this agreement, it is clear that Activision supports our commitment to giving our fans the best possible gaming experiences."