It bodes well for Halo 3 that Bungie is, only two weeks in, already making tweaks and refinements to the multiplayer experience. This first matchmaking update isn't a doozy, but it does address some small concerns with online play that have been brought up since launch, as well as a few goodies thrown in for good measure.

The update reduces the appearance of Shotty Snipers in Team Matchmaking (which was appearing at an unusually high frequency), and fixes it so that when players veto it, the replacement for Shotty Snipers will not be Shotty Snipers. Slayer gametypes will also appear more frequently in Lone Wolves. Big Team Battles have been upped to 16 players, and attacking teams in VIP matches get a waypoint to assist them.

Apologies in advance to the non-Halo players, for which none of the above will make any sense.

[Via X3F]

How dare you, Rooster Teeth, promote same-sex parental separation. Don't you see that this poor, costumed kid is hiding his anguish behind that orange visor?

... oh, wait, this is an allegory for the Bungie / Microsoft split? Nevermind, false alarm. Kudos on winning this week's webcomic wrapup. Second place went to God Mode Online while Penny Arcade and Dueling Analogs duked it out for third. Thanks to everyone who voted, and be sure to let us know of any game-related webcomics you stumble upon this week?

If you've gone through Halo 3, you may have stumbled upon a comical exchange during level 3 ("Crow's Nest") featuring some familiar voices. Well, familiar if you're a Red Vs. Blue fan. Roosterteeth, the team behind the wildly popular machinima series, bid $9000 at last year's Child's Play event to get their voices included in Halo 3 (naturally, Bungie later told them they could've pitched in even if they hadn't won the auction).

GameDaily caught up with some of the crew last week to get their feedback on the experience and their thoughts on Halo 3 in general. Jason Saldana (voice of Tucker) said, "What's pretty cool about it is that six of us provided audio for it, so you end up hearing different voices depending on what difficulty level you play." Take a peek at all four of the different easter eggs involving RvB characters after the break.

Also, RvB fans may want to check out last week's Xbox 360 Fancast featuring Red Vs. Blue's Geoff Ramsey for some more Halo 3 chatter.

It's not an exact rendition of the first level of Super Mario Bros. (maybe soon, little Billy), but the inclusion of Forge and machinima tools within Halo 3 has spawned an entire new group of enthusiasts.

However, the use of proper camera angles and the Mario sound effects lend itself to a thoughtful parody of the retro sidescroller. Of course, we're thinking the guy playing the protagonist plumber did not have as much fun during the making of this film.

[Via X3F]

Just goes to show you, never say never.

Bungie has just announced that they've "reached an unprecedented and exciting agreement" that they'll "branch off" from the Microsoft Game Studios mothership and become Bungie, LLC, an independent company, starting ... today (well, technically October 1, but effective immediately)! Worried about Halo going to another, less competent developer? No need, the studio will retain a long-term publishing agreement with Microsoft Game Studios for Halo titles. Other titles? All they're saying is that they "will continue to develop with [their] primary focus on Microsoft's platforms." With Microsoft holding a minority equity interest in the company, that's not surprising.

Unsurprisingly, Microsoft is also retaining ownership of the Halo property (MGS chief Shane Kim calls it "our Halo entertainment property") as well as reserving first crack at publishing any Bungie-developed IP. We're left wondering if Marathon counts as a Halo property or a Bungie property ...

What are the immediate repercussions of this division? According to Bungie, "Practically speaking, nothing has changed and you guys won't see much, if any difference, for a while ...." We hope it means that somehow they'll be able to bring the same level of skill to a project besides Halo.

Read - Bungie Studios Becomes Privately Held Independent Company (Bungie press release)
Read - Microsoft and Bungie Studios to Evolve Relationship (MS press release)

[Update: GameDaily spoke with Bungie's Frank O'Connor about the "evolution" which, he says, has been in the planning stages for "about a year." He confirms they're not through with Halo yet; they're still working on the Peter Jackson project and DLC for Halo 3. As for Marathon, despite its close ties to the Halo universe, Bungie retains the rights to that property, while MS owns Halo and Take-Two owns Myth and Oni.]

Would-be director of the now thoroughly deceased Halo movie, Neill Blomkamp, recently spoke to Creativity Online about his work on the trio of live-action videos that preceded the launch of the third game in the series -- and really, did we even have to hyperlink that? Blomkamp made it clear that the clips are completely separate entities and shouldn't be seen as replacement nor attempted resurrection for the film. "In essence, those pieces have zero to do with the film," he said. "Like less than zero."

Not even forgotten movie props made it into the viral videos, as Blomkamp explains that "the design and everything that we'd made for the film is just locked up in some locker somewhere." Of course, "locker" is likely a euphemism for the coffin that now holds the "entirely dead" film. "Whatever happens with that movie, assuming that movie gets made, will be a totally different configuration. It's not so much me as the entire vessel sank." Despite the lack of optimism, the South African born director admits he's still curious as to what might happen in the future. You'd think a guy involved in Halo's marketing would, you know, "believe."

[Thanks, Vlad]

There are some caveats to consider, but first place is first place. Media Create's Japanese software sales chart (as detailed by Gamasutra) shows Microsoft's absurdly popular sci-fi shooter in first place having sold 59,000 copies in the last week. It's a relatively modest debut in a sluggish sales period, but Halo 3 is one of a scant few titles to ascend the chart and indeed, the wall of apathy Japanese gamers have constructed around all things Xbox.

Master Chief even managed to best Nintendo's Pokémon franchise, if only because of Nintendo's habit of splitting each installment into two similar but separate versions. With 55,000 units sold, Pókemon Mystery Dungeon 2 nips at Halo 3's heels in second place -- had its sales been combined with its counterpart, Master Chief would be finishing the foreign fight sans legs. Of course, that's nothing $300 million can't replace.

There's a bit of bubbling on the internets that post-Halo 3, Bungie and Microsoft might split ways. This is seeming more and more unlikely, but if it were to ever happen, Microsoft would most likely retain rights to their FPS cash cow, and the milking would begin. The question is, who would be signed to develop the next true Halo sequel?

Over at MTV's Multiplayer blog, Stephen Totilo does the dirty work and compiles a list of likely suspects to continue the franchise. Notable on the radar are developers like Rare, Free Radical, and id, with each possibility being given "wholly speculative" odds on the likelihood of such a thing ever happening.

Of course, it's all just speculation at this point, but it never hurts to wonder. Who could work best with Bungie's golden franchise? For that matter, who could do the most damage to its hallowed reputation?

Continuing a tradition of throwing spitefully negative reviews in the face of overwhelmingly positive reception, The Escapist's angry video-reviewer Yahtzee has turned his sights on Bungie's Halo 3 -- and you better believe that it's enough to make the Sony and Nintendo Defense Forces blush.

Yahtzee's spitting-mad review might be in part a reaction to the high demand for it; he proudly admits to having had no intention of reviewing the megaton first-person shooter until an inordinate number of requests -- and his editor -- forced him to. Still, it's always refreshing to hear unabashedly critical reactions to a game that's largely been walking on water.

Catch the carnage after the break.

This freak plasma grenade toss by BlackShadowMist earns our nod as the luckiest Halo 3 throw ever. What starts out as a Hail Mary miss turns into a Rube Goldberg-style success. Are you saving amazing clips from the game?

Watch the video a few times -- it's short and well worth it -- after the break.

[Thanks, Wes]

Though we're still standing by our initial assertion for now, Game Informer has now come forward to say that they, too, have contacted an anonymous source who claims Bungie staffers are "tired of making Halo" and that shareholders have managed to buy back the Bungie name from Microsoft for an unspecified but significant amount of money.

Part of that deal reportedly has Microsoft retaining rights to the Halo franchise and also having the first shot at publishing future Bungie titles. We could very easily see every (or almost every) employee leaving the studio to start a new company (see: Wideload Studios, Certain Affinity, Giant Bite, Double Aught, etc.), but how much is the Bungie name worth? To Microsoft, probably a lot, but to the employees, would the incredible amount of money required to pay Big Daddy Gates really be worth it? Wouldn't they be better off using that money to build a nice developer environment?

We're still receiving the stock response from Microsoft: "There's been no such announcement. We continue to celebrate the tremendous success of the global phenomenon that is Halo 3." Here's how some other sites have weighed in on the rumor:

• X3F
• Gamespot
• IGN
• 1UP (whose former news editor Luke Smith now works for the developer)
  
• Kotaku

Just as the plot is thickening, you may find the reported cancellation of Halo DS particularly sickening. IGN Nintendo editor-in-chief, Matt Cassamassina, has updated his personal blog with footage of what appears to be the near-mythical portable version of Bungie's ludicrously popular sci-fi shooter. Halo DS is seen sporting the franchise's familiar cyborg, weapons, theme music and a cute logo that should prevent anyone from pronouncing it "Halods" (which sounds like a terribly debilitating gum disease).

If you still believe this to be an elaborate, attention-grabbing fake, feel free to watch an additional video on Cassamassina's blog and post a reply to a comment by IGN's Mark Bozon, who eloquently challenges you to "Call BS on that, bitches."

[Thanks, Squeekyclean]

It makes a whole lot of sense, now that we think about it -- but we're not going to spoil the revelation for you, just check out God Mode Online's comic on the matter. Their observational skills netted them the rather dubious honor of webcomic of the week.

Second place goes to goats for their throwback to adventure games (huzzah!), while 2P Start narrowly edges out Penny Arcade for third place by a mere two votes. (See? Your clicks do matter.) We suspect next Saturday might have a few more Master Chief references. Thanks to everyone who voted, and be sure to let us know of any game-related webcomics you stumble upon this week!

You've got less than a day to submit your final entry in our Legendary Halo 3 Giveaway. Head on over and leave one final comment now because, at 8pm tonight, we're going to disable the comments and pick a single winner at random.

What could you win? Let's go over it all after the break ...

This morning we received a tip from 8Bit Joystick writer Jacob Metclaf, telling us that "a friend of [his] who has someone close that works at Bungie" is privy to inside information that Microsoft is allowing the Halo developer to just up and leave. Let that one sink in: Microsoft, in its apparent benevolence, is reportedly allowing its cash-cow acquisition to graze in other pastures, content to simply retain the Halo brand. It's an absurd notion, and we at Joystiq HQ chortled a bit this morning before shrugging it off. Then we got flooded a few dozen more times, all deriving from the same source. So it's time to address the story.

That's not to say it couldn't somehow happen: after all, there are penguins who go shopping for fish. But why on Earth would a multi-billion dollar company even think to let go of what is arguably their greatest acquisition – a developer that can single-handedly make its Xbox division profitable in a matter of months? The Bungie name alone is worth millions – potentially billions – to the company.

We've read various internet folks justify this rumor by comparing it to Microsoft's acquisition of Rare in 2001. Let's clear up some confusion here, too: Nintendo only owned a 49% stake in that developer when Microsoft bought a 51% majority. In contrast, Microsoft currently owns 100% of Bungie. While it may be true that some of the dev's employees are moving on – much as they have in the past (see: Wideload Studios, Certain Affinity, Giant Bite, Double Aught, etc.) – we're quite confident that Bungie Studios isn't going anywhere. When asked directly about the story, a Bungie representative declined to comment citing the studio's policy of not commenting on rumors.