Since the release of Halo 3 gamers everywhere have been speculating on the future of the series. The most part of this speculation has been based, so far, on the closing credits shown on the Legendary difficulty level. They show remnants of the ship carrying Master Chief as it orbited a new world, confirmed to be neither Earth nor a Halo. Based on these images, fans speculated that we might see a new story arc for the game, which might focus on Master Chief's quest to go back to Earth. It was also rumored that Microsoft would handle development of the new game internally.

But now Gamespot says that an inside source has confirmed the fact that Bungie is, in fact, working on a new Halo game which is not wrapped around the Master Chief, who has been the driving force of the franchise for the last 3 games. The source, which Gamespot confirms as being very close to Bungie and very credible, stated that the developer is preparing to announce, maybe as soon as E3 this week, that a darker and edgier title set in the same universe is under development, one that focuses on squad based combat between the forces of the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) and the forces of the religious extremists of The Covenant.

This unnamed source mentioned that what has been seen of the game is like "a cross between Ghost Recon and Gears of War", with more blood and more violence taking the place of the sanitized version of war often portrayed in the previous Halo games. The protagonists of the rumored game will be the ordinary foot soldiers of the UNSC and the game will try to depict the sacrifices they have to make to protect Earth and humanity from the alien threat.

As always Microsoft and Bungie have not commented on rumors regarding a new Halo project. At the moment the only game set in the Halo universe which is in production is Halo Wars, a real time strategy title which is being created at Ensemble.