Rampancy

In the source of the html at the Mill, Frigidman admits that the item about the Mill shutdown being ordered by MS is, in fact, a joke. Since Myth is in fact now owned by Take Two, this would make little sense anyway.

From the source code:

Frigid goes on to confirm that he won't let anyone else run the Mill, either, as it contains a financially significant amount of proprietary code and expensive hardware.

Our own esteemed Frigidman has shut down his popular Myth map and plugin site, the Mill, as a result of Bungie's purchase by Microsoft. From the site:

By order from Microsoft in light of the new acquisition of Bungie Software, the Mill has been ordered to be taken offline.It's been fun, but all good things must come to an end. I must say, I hate Microsoft with a deep-seated very nasty passion now, and they will never be able to redeem themselves.

There is no independent confirmation of whether Microsoft actually asked the Mill to be taken down or not. The Mill has also posted it's final download stats along with the announcement.

Kraken gets to go down in infamy as the reader who alerted us to the official news. In an interview with Jason Jones at the Daily Radar, it is confirmed: Bungie is being bought by Microsoft. Jones claims that Microsoft will still be allowing Bungie a certain degree of autonomy, including the choices of platforms to develop on.

From the article:

DR: What do you suggest Mac gamers do with all the hair they are going to pull out of their heads at this news?

JJ: If they had some red and yellow dye handy, they could arrange it in the shape of a bulls-eye towards which we can aim the handy new Microsoft mind-control laser we got as part of the deal.

Is it just me, or were jokes like that a lot funnier before they became part of Microsoft?

Just kidding. I think.

At any rate, it appears Oni is not affected by this deal at all, but Jones was particularly silent on what platforms Halo would eventually be released for, making no mention of the Macintosh or the PC other than to say it will be Bungie's decision, and focusing on the bright future of the upcoming X-Box console from Microsoft.

• Forum: It's Official...

Kudos to Haloplayers, who report that Halo has made the cover of the July 2000 issue of PCGamer UK, and that another preview of the game is contained within. The details are in the issue summary, along with a small version of the cover, showing the new marine in action.

And of course, a tastefully mounted slice of my eternal soul to the first fellow to send in a transcribed version of this article (or, just as good, the highlights from it) when it hits the shelves on July 6th. £7.99 per issue is a bit much for this hombre, though I'm sorely tempted with PCGUK's recent Halo coverage.

Update: Jenkz pointed out that this is actually the issue that came out on June 7th (damned numeric dating), and that the material within has already made it's rounds. So no soul for you! Grumble...