Destiny is better than Halo, and that's not saying much. Halo is the most overrated series in gaming history. With good music. If COD MW had launched in Halo 1s era, I doubt Halo would even gotten a sequel. But it was launched in a relative vacuum of FPS on console. Old PC gamers like myself didn't see anything special about Halo because we'd already played dozens of excellent FPS titles in the 90s. And I loved the OG Xbox.

Does this also mean that Microsoft deserves more credit for making Rare into the juggernaut of quality it is today?

Isn't that the general consensus, though? That Microsoft ruined Rare?

I think so. Bungie was obviously getting bored with Halo when ODST came out and they threw a Destiny Easter egg in it. Bungie being controlled by Activision shows how much a publisher can affect development. Im glad Joseph Stanton is back at MS, he most likely left because of Activision's shady tactics of cutting content.

Yes and no.  What Rare is doing now under the leadership of Micrsoft is NOT what they did when first bought out.  Bungie already had the Halo franchise before Microsoft brought them on.  So, yes, Microsoft deserves credit for Rare, but not so much for Bungie.

Doesn't that kind of hurt the narrative the OP is attempting to write, though?  He wants to take as much credit as possible from Bungie and apply it back to Microsoft--I think we know why--by saying they haven't been as successful with a game on another publisher.  His goal is to leave the impression that being under Microsoft's wing improves the work of a developer.  Through osmosis, maybe, or perhaps Don Mattrick came down and showed them how to code.  I mean, he never actually gives any reasons for this phenomenon.

What does that mean regarding Rare, then?  Their output has obviously been worse under Microsoft.

Judging by the OP's standards, there is only one logical conclusion:

Nintendo > Microsoft > Activision.

Yes they deserve a little bit of credit. Im sure they were involved in the development and gave them a good budget.

A fourth game in a franchise from 2007 would blow away a 2001 gen 6 launch game? No way -__-

Yes I think they do. Seems Bungie wanted to change things drastically since Halo 3, so much so that they wanted to split off MS...

Maybe, but his point was only made for Halo regarding BungiexMicrosoft. I think no one questions the ability of a company to fuck up things they own, and that can be extrapolated to practically every single company out there, not only Microsoft.

I don't think it hurts his point that much, though. It's not like "EHHH BUT THEY RUINED RARE" argument helps any case. If anything, one would be acknowledging that OP is right regarding BungiexMicrosoft and we're using Rare as "look! look! being with MS can also be harmful!" type of argument, which would devolve into a different affair.