Bungie is in quite a strange situation at the moment. It has created one of the most successful and profitable franchises in the history of videogames with Halo and its iconic symbol, Master Chief and had a very lucrative working relation with Microsoft.

The developer separated itself from the mothership and is reportedly working on some original intellectual property while still continuing to work on Halo 3: ODST, which is set to arrive later this year and offer closure to the Halo saga, at least when it comes to shooter titles. The company has revealed that, after it’s done with ODST, it would focus on making its own games.

Now, Bungie seems to be shifting its position. Allen Murray, who is a producer on the series, has said that “Halo 3 took two and a half years to make, and we're still working on it. We'll probably be working on it for two more years.” Basically, we could see Bungie making Halo 3-related stuff until the end of 2010 or even 2011, depending on how you choose to count those two years.

Halo 3: ODST (the acronym stands for Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) is set to explore the universe of the Halo franchise from a fresh perspective. Master Chief will not be featured in the game, which will be focused on the experiences of a foot soldier of the United Nations Space Command as a Covenant invasion begins. Bungie has said that it plans to make ODST more stealth-oriented, emphasizing the fragility of the human soldiers when they went up against the superior forces of the aliens.

It's also unclear what new content Bungie could create for the Halo 3 game. There could be more map packs released, but it seems that there are already enough maps for those engaging in multiplayer. Another possibility would be for Bungie to launch episodic content, maybe continuing the story of ODST or telling some parallel tales of war.