“Microsoft buys Bungie to bolster its development of games for personal computers and its planned X-Box video-game console” says Microsoft. Here’s a quote from the press release:

“Bungie is going to move up to Redmond and create great games for the PC and X-Box and really help us shape X-Box as the games platform of the future,” said Ed Fries, vice president of Microsoft’s games division.

As part of the purchase, Microsoft acquired Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.’s 20 percent stake in Bungie. Take-Two, Bungie’s current distributor, has acquired ownership of one of Bungie’s two upcoming releases, a game called “Oni,” as well as the rights to “Myth” games.

Microsoft buy Bungie. Halo for X-box. The rumors were true. ‘Nuff said.

Blam! The Halo SETI Marinestake out the SETI-Hispano team and move up to position #48 in the Battle of the Teams. Hey some good news this weekend. Banzif and Rival go hell for leather and take top honors. FunkyB (48 units) and Shockadelica (17 units) enter the top 300. Full details on the 24 hour stats page.

Woohoo! In this time of stress for Bungie fans Pax Nimbus has created a wonderful smile-inducer… halobungie.com! Check it out.

“It’s absolutely, positively, a website.”
     – Salon

Pax.

The Corporation, a UK gaming site with a twist, has interviewed Tyson Green, aka Ferrex (Dead), of Rampancy.net, on the Microsoft/Bungie situation. Definitely worth a read. Pax.

Another German Halo site, www.planet-halo.de (not to be confused with www.planethalo.de, which came online yesterday), has updated their design. Take a look! Pax.

MacGamers’ Ledge has done some sleuthing, and reports that they’ve ‘confirmed many of the details’ of the MS acquisition rumors. Their news article contains information on what might be happening with some of the larger players. Thanks to Tom Bridge for the heads-up.

$erial-ki!!A has added a fifth chapter to his ongoing Halo saga; you’ll find “The First Wave” on our Fan Fiction page. This might be the last chapter for a bit… summer holidays and all.

Jonathan Haas, a former Bungie employee (who left a few months ago to join a startup), weighs in on the MS/Bungie firestorm, with some very level-headed views. Worth a read by all…

Jerry Nummi writes to tell us that Halo Mac is a new clan page. There doesn’t seem to be anything there but a Flash front page so far, but maybe the other pages are coming soon.

Scytale writes to tell us that Planethalo.de is online. Check it out!

The Halo SETI Marineshold tight to position #49 in the Battle of the Teams. We might take the SETI-Hispano team this weekend but we need more marines in the field. Still only a third of the team on active service. Jjaro tech and ABordner take top honors again. Full details on the 24 hour stats page.

More rumors for your money. Thanks to PUnk for spotting two alternative views to the rumored Microsoft-Bungie buyout one at PS2IGN and the other at XBoxIGN.

Halo in PCGamer (UK). Haloplayers have posted a small pic of the cover of the July edition of PCGamer (UK). It sports the Halo marine in action. According to Jenkz of Haloplayers the July edition will have some exclusive Halo coverage.

Daily Radar weighs in, too.

Speculation intensifies about the Microsoft rumors. GameSpy devoted almost its full news page to the conjecture. (Thanks to ax for the heads-up.)

Halo in MacFormat (UK). Kudos to Phish who sends word that Halo features in the latest issue of MacFormat (UK). Not only that but Phish scanned in the front cover and transcribed the text. We can’t put it all up but here’s the first paragraph:

The game that generated the most excitement at last month’s E3 show in Los Angeles was undoubtedly Halo, Bungie Software’s eagerly anticipated sci-fi combat spectacular. The good new is that, despite many rumors to the contrary, Halo is definitely real and definitely coming to the Mac – a simultaneous Mac/PC release is expected early next year.

Thanks Phish. 🙂

Edgecrusher sends word that pcgames.de have a gaming poll to crush. Lots of games to choose from but there can be only one!

Louis did some HBO server stats and posted the percentage of Windows and Mac OS users to theforums. We felt the figures were worth repeating here:

45.4% MacOS
50.8% Windows (31% Win98, 11% Win95, 7% NT, 2% Win2000)
The remainder is various flavors of Unix, and 6 WebTV hits, and 3 Amiga hits. (!!)

Ok who has the Amiga? 😉

Believe it or not! Matthew Liebhold reports thatmacslash.com claim they were hacked last night and their Bungie-MS buyout details were deleted from their server. Yeah right. Smoke ’em if you’ve got ’em.