http://news.spong.com/article/10461?cb=773


It was revealed yesterday that a major new IP from Microsoft Game Studios is going to be announced in the near future, with the European Xbox event X06 most likely to be playing host to the news. Fresh information obtained by SPOnG today reveals Bungie will be announcing a a brand new IP in the near future, with the X06 announcement likely coming from the Halo-famed studio.

Speaking to a Microsoft source close to the management of the entire Xbox 360 project today, we were told that, " As far as things stand, Halo 3 is the last game [in the series] and it' s more than just ' a thing to say' which I know came as a surprise to everyone [at Microsoft Game Studios not involved with the decision-making process] when it was announced. A new game from Bungie, not Halo 4, will be announced soon and pre-production has begun. So if you' re looking for what to expect at X06, you should be looking at that."

Interestingly, the fact that Halo 3 is officially the last game in the series seems to have been totally overlooked by Xbox 360 fans to date. It was fair to assume that the claim the most important Xbox IP to date was to be killed off was little more than hyperbole on the part of Microsoft. Though awkward genius Bungie seems pretty clear on the matter: " Bungie Shocks World with Surprise Game Announcement. Bungie announces Halo 3, the third and final game in the Halo Trilogy. Halo 3 will be released for Microsoft' s Xbox 360 in 2007," it said on its site during E3, a joke aside to the fact that Halo 3 was a clear cert from the off.

Further confirmation has come in the form of recent interviews, with Halo art director Marty O' Donnell telling the BBC, " We all want Halo to be the great ending to an epic trilogy. We look at what Peter Jackson did with the Lord of the Rings films - which each film bettering the previous one and that is what we are aiming for."

For the record, SPOnG has heard that Halo 3 will be last game in the current Halo Trilogy. Another trilogy, likely a prequel, will be announced at some point in the next 12 months. Nothing solid on that yet, though we' ll keep chipping away at the leaky places and let you know as soon as we hear more.


ps!,Eric Nylund said recently,very soon we gonna announce a new IP that im gonna work with,MS is publishing it,and its gonna be the best game ever!

Eric nylund writres stories to games,such as Gears of war,and worked on the Halo novels.