An interesting rumour currently doing the rounds speculates that Gearbox Software, the developer behind the likes of Half-Life: Opposing Force, Half-Life: Decay and the Brothers In Arms series, is taking over the FPS reigns from Bungie and may well be working on a new title for the Halo franchise to launch at the same time as the next Xbox console.

The source of the rumour is the Official Xbox Magazine, who have been investigating the enthusiastic outburst from CEO of Gearbox, Randy Pitchford earlier this year, who could hardly contain his excitement about the company's new top secret project. "It's big... 'look at our line up and imagine something even bigger,' he enthused on the offical forums.

The magazine's conclusion, which will be revealed in the October Issue of OXM, is that it's working on a new Halo title.

Knowing Gearbox's pedigree in the FPS genre and its work on the PC port of Halo Combat Evolved, it does make perfect sense. They do have the experience. Furthermore, last October Bungie stepped away from Microsoft Game Studios to become an independent company deciding that it wanted to create games for multiple platforms.

Although Bungie is still working on games within the Halo Universe, notably Halo Wars and Halo: Chronicles, if they were working on Halo 4 then surely the news would have been leaked by now, or an announcement would have been made at E3 this year?

For now, it's just a rumour, but don't be surprised in the slightest if this one turns out to be true . Hopefully we'll find out more when OXM is released in October.

Source :: Joystiq