So no, they don't have the same deal ;) Valve isn't funded by EA as was the case of IW/EA agreement.
Better check your facts.

Shades of grey as far as I am concerned. When you are dealing with companies who have the one goal of extracting the most amount of money out of 'consumers' then it's just a case of who is not AS bad as the other.

Oy. How many meaningless agreements do I have to make to make you happy? Want me to go randomly find every single post I agree with and say "Word yo, that be some good talking you made"? Will that make you happy? :p
I can't help it if I prefer to only post when I have something to say.
The 10 years thing is kind of scary, but it is still for a single IP. Halo lasted for about the same length. Call of Duty has gone on for about 7-ish. Unreal Tournament alone is over 10 years (I think they are planning another one...). So they are locked in for a single IP in a franchise.
Let's look at the movie industry. Samuel L Jackson is locked in as Nick Fury for something like 9 movies. Even assuming two or three movies a year, that is a good chunk of time and commitment. How long were those Harry Potter actors locked in to the movies for?
Maybe Activision does see this as the first step to an acquisition. So what? Unless Bungie sees the benefit of such a deal, they won't. They have a lot of options, and they haven't burnt every bridge behind them.
Or maybe Bungie WILL merge. But if they do, they have the leverage to make sure it is beneficial to them. Bioware merged with EA, and they are pumping out some of their best work ever. Blizzard merged with Activision, and people still seem to like Starcraft and WoW. Hell, IW left Activision AND burned every bridge behind them, and they got a new gig pretty fast. Why? Because they are a known "good", as it were. So is Bungie, even if we all feel the need to vehemently call Halo trash (remember Marathon, that works for me :p)

How the heck is Microsoft more evil than Activision? And what's with the whole evil bullshit? They are both publicly owned companies and need to present profits to their board of investors.

Microsoft is the one who created paid DLC things. Also GFWL is the disease of the PC. If you want to pay them money just go and pay. And for GFWL just look this topic only. I hate Microsoft so I am happy with this deal. Actvision is evil because it is selling their games for $59.99 for PC and $15 for a 5 maps and 2 of them is remake? Also they aren't paying game devs look at the Infinity Ward. I think this is enough.
http://community.codemasters.com/forum/dirt-2-game-pc-1313/405391-will-you-buy-another-codemasters-game-if-codemasters-stick-using-gfwl.html

You said why are you calling companies evil and I answered it. FIrstly, go and read Codemasters forum so you can learn why GFWL is the disease. It is only supporting 26 countries in the world and if you are living other than these 26 countries you can't play multiplayer part of your full paid game, ok? And DLC thingy yes, Microsoft started it and companies are releasing unfinished games because of this. Also Microsoft is paying developers for making exclusive games for Xbox 360, or timed exclusives like GTA 4 and DLC's. This is really bullshit, I don't care about Halo and Bungie games but I am happy because Microsoft lost Bungie. I am a PC gamer BTW so this news isn't important for me but I am happy as I said.

didn't bethesda start with DLC with their horse armour? i really thought it was the first dlc available.
and GFWL is free as far as i know and it is not evil. bad maybe but not evil. the principles behind it are sound. just somehow they f---ed up.
that's why there is a difference between Msoft and Activision.
@Gundato
So what? SO WHAT?
how can you say so what? did you miss the whole situation about chicken who laid diamond eggs and shat platinum poo? Who got slaughtered because of greed, forced to make more of the same game?
There is no comparison between EA and Activision. EA sins are destroying westwood, not killing game series because they cannot be turned into franchise which can be milked year after year.
EA never charged you 15 EUR for five different carpets for your sim home or basically said on open conference that they want to install fear in the hearts of their minions.
Maybe activsions is going to change its ways in the next future. I don't see it tough. Their ways made them billions and they won't change till everything comes crushing down.

Please check your facts, if you mean on the console space, DLC was first on on the Dreamcast and only later appeared on the XBOX where it was free for most titles. If you're talking about the PC, then DLC has been around for ages, just not under that name.
Also, "And DLC thingy yes, Microsoft started it and companies are releasing unfinished games because of this" this isn't a causality relation, sorry if I'm the first one to tell you that ;)
As for having exclusives, why is this a bad thing? Why isn't Sony or Nintendo EVIL because they have exclusives on their consoles? Come on people, seriously, you're saying that Microsoft is evil because it has exclusive content on its closed platform. Seriously?
Going to the GFWL thing, WOW, it's regionally restricted. Maybe because developing the necessary infrastructure is too expensive compared to money returned (yes, you know, big companies think in terms of ROI) or the laws don't allow for it. But gee, Microsoft is evil because instead of fucking not selling the game there (as some companies do) it decides just to disable multiplayer.
You know what's even MORE funny about that thread on the Codemasters board? There were only 98 votes and they still got to be 50% split between yes and no. Bwahaha!

Incorrect. MMO;s started the whole concept of DLC but they called it Micro-transaction. If M$ are guilty of anything it's bringing the concept of DLC to other genres.

Kotick has now killed the Tony Hawk series, the Guitar Hero series, and the Call of Duty series. You're next Halo. Kotick is the franchise killer.

Microsoft are keeping Halo so it's up to them to ruin it. Off to a good start with Halo Wars.

In that case the world will see suicides of many Halo 1337 kids.

Wasn't that produced by Ensemble Studios? But either way, console RTS remains an oxymoron as far as I'm concerned. :P

While this is true, you underestimate the powers of the dark Kotick one. He will devour all.