Bungie Actually Leaving Microsoft? on GameInformer lends a little of their credibility to rumors that a Bungie split from Microsoft is in the offing (story). Word is:

While the majority of Internet denizens are stating that this could never happen and that it’s not true, we’ve heard the opposite. From a source close to Bungie, Game Informer has learned this rumor has some merit. It looks like with Halo 3, Bungie really is finishing the fight.

Our source stated that Bungie is “tired of Making Halo, and didn’t want to do future Halo games.” For an unstated, but significant amount of money, Bungie shareholders bought the studio name back from Microsoft. Our source also revealed that even though Microsoft will retain the rights to Halo, Microsoft also has “the right of first refusal on future games.” This means that Microsoft has the first shot at publishing Bungie’s future titles. How this will come into play if Bungie decides they want future game X to appear on the PlayStation 3 and Wii alongside an Xbox 360 release will make things quite interesting.