Seeing the extreme measures Bungie is taking to ensure their independence, makes me hope Sony does eventually take over. With a hiring freeze, I wouldn't be surprised if devs are already looking elsewhere to work. It's not like they're getting a holiday bonus anyway now.
Bungie's leadership has been terrible ever since they moved into the AAA space. Halo CE had a painful development and Halo 2 even more so. Halo 3, funny enough, had the smoothest development cycle because Bungie leadership literally left leaving the actual developers to lead development on the game.
I hope everything turns out well for the devs sake, but seeing where longtime Bungie leadership is taking the studio, I doubt it's going to get any better without intervention.
You called down the thunder, now reap the whirlwind