Bungie mystery project: Halo prequel, Forerunner, or next-gen Marathon?

[wraggster]

The official story: See below.

What we heard: Few things generate as much interest as a hot bowl of steaming Halo gossip. Small wonder, then, that ye olde Internet was abuzz this week with two big rumors regarding the next project from the sci-fi shooter's developer.

First up is a post on the blog of Eric Nylund, author of the Halo novels Fall of Reach and First Strike. Though the message was posted on July 11, it fell below most people's radar ... until a few days ago. That's when thousands of gamers stood up and took notice of the tantalizing clues Nylund dropped--clues about a major new franchise coming from Microsoft Game Studios.

After talking a bit about his current project, the eagerly anticipated Gears of War, Nylund talks about his forthcoming project. "What am I working on next? Well, if you took all the best parts of your favorite games, and smashed them together at light speed with your favorite movies and books, you'd get something close to this," he said. "It's not announced yet, but as soon as Microsoft does, I can at least tell you the title, genre, and what particular thing makes this game goose-bump worthy. So stay tuned."

Nylund's comments and his Halo connection helped resurrect rumors that Bungie is working on a project called "Forerunner," a free-roaming action game set in the Halo universe before the events of Halo. Further weight was thrown behind the theory by an article on the less-than-reputable-but-often-accurate UK gaming site SPOnG. The site's editors claim to have learned that Bungie will be announcing a new IP at X06, its forthcoming European Xbox expo.

"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].' ... A new game from Bungie, not Halo 4, will be announced soon and pre-production has begun." According to SPOnG, "Another trilogy, likely a prequel, will be announced at some point in the next 12 months."

Were that not enough brain candy for Halo-heads for one week, gaming blog Kotaku jumped on the band wagon with its own theory--that the "new IP" will actually be a next-gen version of the shooter that started it all for the studio. "After all, Halo is a sort of sequel to the entire Marathon trilogy... the Master Chief even wears a more advanced version of the same [Mjolnir power] armor," said the site. "A prequel bridging Halo and Marathon would really be quite within Bungie's modus operandi." [EDITOR'S NOTE: The Marathon series took place at the end of the 28th Century--over 500 years after Halo, which is set in the mid-23rd Century.]

So what did Microsoft have to say about this big ol' ruckus? You can probably guess. "Microsoft does not comment on rumors or speculation," was the familiar refrain from the software behemoth's external PR representative. So, with no hard facts, this triple-serving of scuttlebutt can't be proven or disproven. A nerd can dream, though, can't one?

Bogus or not bogus?: See above.

[stotheamuel]

interesting hope for updates, i hope its something connecting to the marathon series