I think Microsoft still owns a large minority stake in the business. I suspect once studios reach a certain level of power, they are like pokemon and it takes a strong trainer with plenty of badges to earn their respect. Jokes aside, the desire to control their own destiny is a powerful one which is why the Insomniac rumours will refuse to die.

@Severance

to a degree they do however Sony has control over both Ratchet and Resistance and we don't know what sort of pressure Sony puts on Insomniac in terms of game design. Personally I doubt there is much conflict there since the two seem to get along great. The only reason I would see them going multi is for better sales cause lets face it the newest Ratchet hasn't done that great and Resistance 2's sales weren't exceptional. Both sold decent but would have had bigger revenue if multi-plat.

yeah MS does still have a big say in Bungie.  While no one knows the exact specifics its pretty much known that Bungie is free to create any game they want to and MS has first rights to claim publishing duties.  Basically they see the game before anyone and decide if they want to keep it exclusive.  If for some insane reason they decide not to then Bungie is allowed to seek any publisher that they wish and release for any console.

With 3-4 years development + 1-2 years pre-production it makes sense for a developer to want to take full control over their I.P. if possible. The people who work on the games invest so much into them that its probably a little heartbreaking to see their work neglected or controlled by outside entities who have had no direct input into the blood, sweat, tears and triumphs of the games development.

However in saying that im sure Microsoft has 50-70% of the profit from every game they make as per a typical publishing agreement. I suspect they are better off with a strong Bungie outside of their control than a shell of a Bungie so its probably not a bad arrangement for them either, especially if Bungie creates yet another 5M+ selling I.P. which from reputation alone shouldn't be too difficult.

Seems just a rumor, but...

It's the way of the industry. Insomniac's games aren't cheap to develop, and they could really use the opened market - and Sony's not exactly in a position to throw money at them hand over fist. You can count the number of top-notch 3rd (2nd in their case for awhile?) party exclusives on one hand. The money's just too big, and it's not like their sales have been lighting up the scoreboard.

Resistance did 3.8 million- but a million plus were pack-ins, no? Resistance 2 dropped to 1.8 million total despite a heavy marketing push leading to/upon release and a prime holiday sales slot.

The last PS3 Ratchet is only at 880k or so, down from the previous game's 1.9 million.

And these are both good quality games - all with metacritic scores between 86 and 89 - but I'm sure they think they could double their sales or so by going multiplat. (Ratchet on the Wii makes sense to me too.)

Exclusive's great if you're selling copies like mad. But that's just not the case for them.

oh yes...

Noo >

"Inside sources" are generally outright liars or figments of the author's imagination.

If they do decide to go multiplat, good for them. Why don't I go write an article about Bungie going multiplat, from MY insider source?

People seem to think that when something is written in an article, it's automatically true.

When will these rumors die already? Confirm it, or end it.

I swear, it's MGS4 all over again.

/end rant

P.S. Keep in mind, BenVTrigger, that this is not directed at you.

Bungie might well go multi-platform when they release their first post-Reach game.  Their deal with MS when they regained their independence as as tudio specifically opens that possibility.