I think you've fallen prey to a vicious rumor. Bungie can't be "liberated" the way the rumor describes. They were bought, lock stock and barrel, Halo included, for somewhere between 30 and 50 million back in 2000. That's a whisper number, of course, I don't think terms were ever disclosed. Probably buried in MS financial statements somewhere.

However, Bungie is worth a whole lot more than that now. They aren't going to simply be cut loose. Somebody would have to buy them. I can't see them being worth less now than, say, what MS paid for Molyneux's studio, which is in the hundreds of millions.

I'm sure it's possible that Bungie's employees are better paid than they were pre-2000, but I don't think they can afford to buy out the company.

If anything, the rumor may be founded on the idea that one or more individuals at Bungie might be sick of Halo and planning to leave and do a spinoff, like Alex Seropian did with Wideload.

However, as long as Jason Jones and Marty O'Donnell are still there, I'd argue there's enough Bungie to keep calling them Bungie.

If Jones were to leave, that'd be real news. There are already plenty of people who have come and gone from Bungie, both pre- and post-buyout.