This image was lost some time after publication.

Having finished the fight to bring out hot new shoot-'em-up videogame Halo 3, and in the process helping Microsoft rake in $300 million in sales, Bungie has, as rumored, reclaimed its independence from Microsoft, which acquired the studio in 2000. As part of the deal, Microsoft is holding onto a small equity stake and will continue to churn out Halo titles with the aid of Bungie. Meanwhile, the studio will be free to develop new titles and publish games with Microsoft Games Studio — so there's really no need to overreact. Sure, Bungie put Microsoft's Xbox videogame console on the map — but as the Xbox morphs into a set-top box for the living room, bringing Internet music and video downloads straight to your flat-screen TV, it's not clear that hot videogame titles are what's going to drive sales in the future.