The Past, Present, And Future Of Diablo by Jason Schreier (Gaming)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Friday, November 23, 2018, 12:54 (2284 days ago) @ Korny

With MS, Bungie had creative freedom. They were going to put out a hit regardless, and so (crunch and deadlines aside), were given free reign with regards to creative expression.

This is kind of true, but it's not so cut and dry. Microsoft really didn't like Bungie for a number of reasons. If they thought they could have had someone else make Halo and have it succeed, they would have. But they believed only Bungie could do it. Bungie convinced Microsoft of this well enough through a bit of deception in hindsight, but it was ultimately the truth in my opinion.

If you are thinking Microsoft gave Bungie whatever they wanted and bent over backwards for them, that is really really wrong. It was pretty rocky even from the start. Ed Fries was pretty instrumental in making sure Microsoft didn't interfere. Believe me, they wanted to at times.