Sometimes the rumors tend to become reality. Let me give you an example. Earlier this week there were rumors that Bungie, Microsoft’s owned game studio, responsible for the Halo franchise, is ready to leave the Redmond company.

The rumor started on the 8BitJoystick blog and soon it made its way into mainstream media. Today Microsoft confirmed that the information was correct as they announced that Bungie will become a separate company.

Microsoft will retain an equity interest in Bungie, at the same time continuing its long-standing publishing agreement between Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie for the Microsoft-owned “Halo” intellectual property as well as other future properties developed by Bungie, the Redmond-based company said in a statement.

Bungie Studios was created in 1991 and during its first nine years the company was involved in developing games for Macs. During this period Bungie Studios created Marathon trilogy, with the first game being released in 1994.

In 2000 Bungie Studios was acquired by Microsoft and it became an important part of Microsoft Game Studios. One year later Bungie Studios released Halo: Combat Evolved and since then, the game has grown into a global entertainment phenomenon, selling more than 14.8 million units worldwide, logging more than 800 million hours of multiplayer action on Xbox LIVE, and spawning action figures, books, a graphic novel, apparel and more.

Halo 3, which was released last week, is the latest addition to the franchise and a huge success with more than $170 million worth of copies in the first 24 hours of release.

Despite the success the people behind Bungie Studio has grown tired of Halo and they want to be free to create new intellectual properties.

"Working with Microsoft was great for us, it allowed us to grow as a team and make the ambitious, blockbuster games we all wanted to work on," said Jason Jones, Bungie founder and partner, in a statement Friday. "But Bungie is like a shark. We have to keep moving to survive. We have to continually test ourselves, or we might as well be dolphins. Or manatees."

In the press statement released today Microsoft confirmed that the collaboration with Bungie will continue.

“Our collaboration with Bungie has resulted in “Halo” becoming an enduring mainstream hit,” said Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios. “While we are supporting Bungie’s desire to return to its independent roots, we will continue to invest in our ‘Halo’ entertainment property with Bungie and other partners, such as Peter Jackson, on a new interactive series set in the ‘Halo’ universe. We look forward to great success with Bungie as our long-term relationship continues to evolve through ‘Halo’-related titles and new IP created by Bungie.”

For the moment is unclear if Bungie Studios intends to develop titles for other gaming platforms. When asked about this issue by PC World, Frank O'Connor, writing lead at Bungie responded: "In theory, yes” but "Honestly, we're really happy working on the 360," he added. "It's our platform of choice."

Speaking with MacWorld Brian Jarrard, franchising director at Bungie, described Bungie’s departure as “a combination of factors”

However, Bungie's metamorphosis into an independent studio could seriously affect Microsoft’s gaming division because this happens in a moment when the Redmond-based company needs good games more than ever to maintain the sales of Xbox 360.