Bungie: Maybe we do another Halo game in 10 years

Is it or isn’t it? It’s the question every Halo fan has been asking since developer Bungie first revealed Halo: Reach would be the studio’s final Halo game.

Since then, there’s been some confusion over whether or not the developer really meant it. Indeed in August last year Bungie PR director Brian Jarrard told VideoGamer.com that “we just don’t know at this point”.

But yesterday it seemed all hope for a Bungie-developed Halo 4 was dashed when lead multiplayer designer Lars Bakken told Joystiq that Halo: Reach “is out last Halo Bungie game”.

“For Bungie? As far as right now, currently, yes. This is our last Halo Bungie game,” he said.

“Now in the future, who knows? You can never say never, because things change. maybe ten years down the line we decide to make another Halo game, but for right now, yes. This is it for us.”

So where does that leave the Halo series? With 343 Industries, the Microsoft Game Studios internal-build team established to create new properties for the Halo.

In October last year, 343 creative director Frank O’Connor told USA Today that plans are in place which define what is coming in the Halo franchise for at least the next six years.

While Halo: Reach looks destined to knock Halo fans’ socks off, millions of budding Spartans around the world want to know when the surely inevitable Halo 4 will eventually see the light of day, and when they’ll get to see what becomes of Master Chief following the events of Halo 3.

“I think that (his) fate, Cortana’s fate and the identity of that giant, dark planet at the ending (on the game’s hardest skill level) – that’s a spoiler – are probably big mysteries that would be irritating if they were just cliffhangers,” said O’Connor last year.

As for potential developers? Your guess is as good as ours.

For more on Halo: Reach, including a hands-on preview of the upcoming multiplayer beta, head over to our game page.