Source: videogamesblogger.com

Bungie Day 2008 is almost upon us! The event will happen on July 7th. Outside of the freebies that will be given away, a new ViDoc has hinted that Bungie will announce a new game!

To quote: “Our independance has us driving towards becoming a multi-game studio, and the first thing we’re gonna announce today…” after which the first Bungie employee gets cut off by the second one who says “Whooo ho, we’re not announcing anything yet.” Could it be Halo 4 or Marathon 4?

Here’s what you can look forward to happening:
* Watch the new video documentary on Cold Storage:

* Cold Storage will be available for free beginning on July 7, Bungie Day, on Xbox Live Marketplace. Cold Storage is a remake of the Halo 1 map Chill Out.

* Additionally, on 7/7, Microsoft is dropping the price of the Legendary Map Pack from 800 spacebucks to 600 spacebucks. — For now, Cold Storage will be implemented in regular rotation in playlists that require the Legendary Maps. To avoid confusion, playlists that previously required the Legendary Maps will now remind players that they need “all Maps” to participate, and since Cold Storage is free, it shouldn’t be a big deal for you to grab the map on July 7 and then return to your regularly scheduled business in SWAT.

* Additionally, don’t forget to grab the one-day-only free gamerpics (last year it included Mister Chief) and theme on 7/7.

* Beginning on July 7, there will be a 48-hour long seven-player FFA playlist in Halo 3’s Matchmaking where you can turn the calendar back to 2001 and control Rockets, Invis and Snipe.

* Next edition of the Bungie Podcast: Guests include: Lars Bakken, Shishka, Producer Allen Murray, Security Expert Jerome Simpson, IT Manager and Podcast Engineer Steve Lopez, Producer Joe Tung and Mission Architect Chris Carney. Save roughly 95 minutes of your day on Monday for the Bungie Podcast, which will likely include the New Game announcement.

Source: videogamesblogger.com

The following Bungie developer interview notes are a summary of everything Halo 4 the company talked about or what was hinted at. We dubbed it “The Secret Files” that puts one and one together. Every Halo fan obviously knows the (original) Halo trilogy is over (and left with an open ending). But with Ensemble Studios working on the Halo Wars RTS prequel and an episodic Halo: Chronicles cinematic-game trilogy series still in the works by Peter Jackson, would a Halo 4 FPS really be that far fetched? Time to line up the facts…

July 14th 2006: Bungie audio director, Marty O’Donnell, said at the UK Game Developers Conference that “We all want Halo to be the great ending to an epic trilogy. We look at what Peter Jackson did with the Lord of the Rings films - which each film bettering the previous one and that is what we are aiming for.”

September 25th 2007: At the launch of Halo 3 the cinematic designer, Lee Wilson, said “There’s a lot of people who have been working on Halo much longer than us two have and they’re really interested in exploring new games, new stories, and whatever comes out of those conversations is what we’re going to pursue. We’re still going to make games for us.” And Joe Tung, multiplayer producer, said that the team was “figuring out right now what we’re working on next. We really don’t know what that is yet but as soon as we know, everyone else will know. Halo 4 is not in development.”

October 8th 2007: Halo movie director, Neill Blomkamp, confirmed that the Halo “film is entirely dead,” but consoled fans of the series by mentioning that “Well, we are already at work on another Halo game — I wouldn’t call it ‘Halo 4′, but it is based in the Halo Universe and represents a collaboration between Bungie and Peter Jackson. Halo 3 was definitely not the last Bungie Halo game.”

November 9th 2007: Bungie studio manager, Harold Ryan, mentioned that “Obviously Microsoft wanted us to make more Halo games. Both I and some of the more senior guys from the original Halo game have deep piles of game designs for the Halo universe that we are excited to build at some point. If the stars align and motivations are good and the platforms are right we’ll do them.”

Now in 2008: Bungie are still supporting the Xbox 360-exclusive Halo 3 with new map packs, as well as the above mentioned two Halo game spin-offs that are set for tentative Q4 2008 releases. It does look like they want to take a break from the series, which might be part of the reason why Bungie became independent from Microsoft. But since money makes the world ago around, and of course fans do want more, it’s doubtful Microsoft or Bungie will want to give up on the Halo series that as of October 4th, 2007, combined sold over 20 million copies worldwide. Perhaps by the time the Xbox 720 launches in 2011-2012 we’ll hear about Master Chief’s comeback in Halo 4.

Picture courtesy of VGboxart, quotes via BBC, ProG, Crunchgear, Bungie, and a previous VGB article.