It’s theoretically possible that there may be some of you out there who are still unaware that Halo 3, the latest and supposedly final chapter in the ludicrously popular videogame series, has recently become available for purchase.

In which case, I’d like to congratulate you for escaping from solitary confinement in a Thai prison, but if you don’t mind me saying so, stopping by a local internet café to browse the SG Newswire might not be the best way to celebrate your new-found freedom.

For the rest of you, if Microsoft’s marketing tsunami hasn’t already convinced you to buy one of the three different versions of Halo 3 to play on your new Halo 3-themed Xbox 360 console while you drink Halo 3-flavored Mountain Dew and then impress fellow Halo 3 players by burping loudly into your Halo 3-themed wireless Xbox Live Headset, they’ve got one last trick up their sleeves to wring a few more drops of hype from Halo 3 now that it’s gone from “upcoming videogame packed with life-altering awesomeness” to “tangible shiny disc-shaped object you can be interactively entertained by while Bill Gates takes another swim in his Scrooge McDuck-sized pool of money”.

To celebrate the release of Halo 3, Microsoft announced today that they are “evolving their relationship” with Bungie, the game development studio that created the Halo games. Bungie, who had been in a monogamous relationship with Microsoft since Microsoft bought them in 2000, got the 7 year itch and decided the time was right to take a little break, get back into the swingin’ independent game developer scene, maybe see some other consoles. Microsoft fell for the “it’s not you, it’s me” line and now only owns a minority stake in Bungie.

Like most major developments in the videogame industry, news of the Microsoft/Bungie split first appeared as an unsourced rumor in an obscure videogame blog. The original article, which paints the reasons for the split in less glowing terms than the eventual Bungie and Microsoft press releases, started a geeksplosion of skeptical postings and articles on other, slightly less obscure videogame websites.

Those of you who have social lives that don’t involve bellowing “Boom! Headshot!” into your headset might not realize how the accuracy of most videogame rumors posted on the internet is on par with broken watches and blind pigs, which makes it all the more surprising that this one turned out to be true.

But before you start daydreaming about how awesome it’ll be to play Halo 4 with your Wiimote, Microsoft still owns the intellectual property rights to all things Halo. Also, Microsoft will be “continuing its long-standing publishing agreement” with Bungie for future games, and Bungie claims that they “will continue to develop with our primary focus on Microsoft’s platforms”.

I just hope this split doesn't further delay the release of my most anticipated Bungie game that doesn't involve the word "Halo", the genre-defining killer app known as Pimps At Sea.