It was a very serious worry that we would soon be running out of Halo related games to play; after all, there are only two games confirmed for the future. These worries came after comments made by Lars Bakken, a senior designer at Bungie, to CVG in which he said, ‘œin terms of Bungie-produced Halo games, ODST and then Reach is probably all you’re going to get.’

Thus steps in Brian Jarrard, director of PR and the Bungie community, to quickly backtrack on Bakken’s comments, telling Videogamer a very definitive ‘œwe just don’t know at this point’. He went on to say, ‘œI wouldn’t confirm or deny at this point’, and, ‘œwe’re going to keep looking at making the games we want to make. Maybe that’s Halo, maybe it’s not; we’ll just have to wait and see’

I would dearly have loved Bakken’s comments to be true. I’ve played my fair share of multiplayer in Halo and I like Bungie as a developer; they treat their fans better than most. That said, I was a little disappointed that the experience hadn’t progressed much from Halo 2 till 3, and I don’t see the inclusion of Horde Firefight in ODST changing my views much either. I can’t help but feel that the experience will get old fast, unless there are a few changes made. This is, however, just my opinion; the average Halo fan will likely be foaming at the mouth in rage at a non-Halo Bungie game. I think Bungie realised this as well.

It would seem that they want to keep their options open, but even if/when they make another Halo game after Reach, I for one hope it’s not for a good while. I want to see them supporting ODST and Reach, but whilst working on some new and original IP’s. Yes, a lot of fans will bitch and moan, but then the average multiplayer match is at least 80% bitching and moaning. Either way, the Halo franchise won’t die just yet; Microsoft will see to that. Mr Bakken mentioned in earlier comments, ‘œI can’t answer that question for Microsoft though. Whether they have something in the works or not, I don’t know if they’re actually ready to talk about it yet.’ The rumours over 343 Industries being set up by Microsoft specifically for Halo related projects springs to mind here.

So, despite Bungie’s backtracking, they might continue to ride the Halo cash cow around for a while yet, or surrender that to Microsoft and work on something innovative and original.