After a good long stint working as a social media manager at Bungie, Frank O'Connor left Bungie (about 8 months ago) to work at Microsoft. It wasn't just an ordinary side-stepping job, it turns out. Put that together with Bungie's separation from Microsoft to become its own studio, and now it all makes sense.

Bungie split from Microsoft to become more independent and gain a little more control over its destiny (although arguably all we have seen is more Halo games, and Halo 3: ODST seems a little like contract filler, to be fair). With O'Connor at MS looking over what is essentially a new publishing division at MS, Bungie is very likely going to be under different restrictions (fewer), and have better management over its properties than before. It's essentially a custom publishing brand specifically made for Bungie.

Better, custom management by a Bungie insider who knows games? Sounds like a great idea to me. Congratulations, Frankie!