PGR had some of the best physics, rather they were FUN... a fun as hellr acing game not all bogged down with all the BS most have.. And i thought Blur was also fun.... this sucks...

Except this isn't a classic EA IP Smash and Grab. Microsoft owns the Project Gotham IP and Sega still own Metropolis Street Racer and I believe The Club. The only IPs Activision have gained here are Blur and possibly Geometry Wars. Budcat have nothing since Activision have bought them they have farmed out Guitar Hero games.

In budcat's case i'm thinking they like to crush competition.....

Which makes me think that almost every other developer will demand to make a deal similar to Bungie if they want to work with Activision.

That's extremely difficult. Bungie are in that bracket known as super-developers who can dictate terms to publishers. The only people left on that level are the likes of BioWare and Valve. In the case of almost every other developer it's the publisher that calls the shots and if a dev studio is also a PLC there is nothing stopping a wealthy publisher buying them outright.

That's about the sum of it. If a developer doesn't have a track record of consistently developing multi-million dollar games then they're a potential liability that must be kept on a leash. If kept at all.