Halo 3: ODST

The New Bungie Halo Project is the current name being used to refer to a new Halo game being developed by Bungie, LLC.

Overview
Although Bungie has consistently stated that Halo 3 was the last game in the trilogy, having ever ruled out possible Halo games in the same story line being released in the near future, an interview by MTV with Don Mattrick (Senior Vice President of Microsoft's Xbox division) revealed that Bungie's game is at the very least Halo-related, and that it is not Bungie's collaborative efforts on Halo Wars or Halo: Chronicles, but a "new" game.

Although a proper announcement was meant for July 16th, 2008 at E3, it was canceled by Microsoft because they wanted to focus on games by first-party developers that were coming out in 2008 - criteria which the Bungie project did not fit. It was also stated by Microsoft that they did not want to further lengthen their press conference so as not to stretch the attention span of the attendees, and that they wished to give the new Halo project an event of its own to release details on it.

The most popular rumor surrounding this new title is that it's a squad-based shooter in the Halo universe with the player filling the role of a Marine commander. This could be the reason why Christian Allen, a former Marine and Red Storm employee who worked on the Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six series, joined Bungie in early 2007.

Trivia

 * On June 13th 2008 the website Gamespot claimed to have received information of a new Bungie Halo project that was "a cross between Ghost Recon and Gears of War" from a source with firsthand knowledge of Bungie's developments.


 * On August 22nd 2008, Bungie said in a Friday update: "We’ve of course heard the gums flapping on the Internet that Bungie is making more Halo stuff. We’ve never said that we’re finished with Halo 3; in the Edge acceptance video, we confirmed that the ride isn’t over."


 * According to Gamer.tm, Bungie is due to announce its project in a press conference in Europe between the 21st and 28th of September.