News: Looks like Halo: Reach really is the end of Bungie's involvement with the Master Chief.
Since Bungie declared their independence from Microsoft a few years ago, they've constantly talked about their future after Halo. Now, they're finally beginning to take steps towards the realization of that future.
A job listing posted on Bungie's website for a Writing Lead has revealed that the company is looking for someone to "help define Bungie's next game universe."
While Bungie's next project (after 2010's
Halo: Reach, of course) won't take place in the Halo universe, it may share many similarities to a world populated by Spartans and Elites and The Flood.
The job description goes on to say that applicants will be expected to create "Histories and legends, combat dialog, [and] weapon descriptions" and that their words are expected to "inspire artists to create whole worlds and races of creatures with a few, quality keystrokes."
So we've got combat dialog, weapons, alien races. It may not be Halo, but Bungie is definitely following a paraphrased version of the writer's credo...
write develop what you know.
All told, Bungie has nine job openings, and nearly all of them include some mention of "creating new worlds". And if that's not a big, flashing sign announcing to the world "our next game will not have Halo in the title!", I don't know what is. Many of the openings also ask for experience in console game development, so it's unlikely that Bungie has any interest to take back their crown as one of the Mac's premier game developers.
Obviously, platform details, a release date or any other details are being kept tightly under wraps. But we'll have more on Bungie's next project soon.