Halo Wars is Ensemble Studios' task as we all know, as Halo 3 is Bungie's last developed title in the series. So could this mean that Halo 3 is the last we see of Master Chief? Or is it just Master Chief that we'll be missing? The Mercury News tried asking the head of Microsoft Game Studios, Shane Kim for an answer, as 1UP reports, but it wasn't exactly the answer they hoped for:

"I think what we have built is an amazing universe with Halo," said Kim. "There are more stories to tell in the Halo universe. We are building a real-time strategy game with Ensemble Studios. That is going to be very successful when you combine their expertise in that genre with the amazing back story of Halo. So I do agree that I think the universe itself will support a lot more. [1UP's emphasis] With respect to this story, Bungie has been very clear. This is the end of the Halo trilogy. Master Chief is here to finish the fight."

What, wait... no... don't go! Master Chief is doing what? Where...? Eh... So what's happening exactly, aside the Halo trilogy ending that is? Is Master Chief going down with it? What if Bungie plans to make Halo Trilogy, just like Midway did with the Mortal Kombat series? 1, 2, 3 and Trilogy. That can happen, right?

Why isn't Bungie saying anything? Hasn't anyone tried to torture some information out of them? OK, the RTS part we get, it's Ensemble Studios' deal, but what's Bungie going to do now that they have their last game of FPS series on the launching pad? Does Kim want to tell us that after the Beta for Halo 3 is over, Bungie's done with game development? Surely they've got another 360 games cooking down there.

We're going to see another FPS from Bungie if it's the last FPS ever developed.