Gearbox clams on Halo 4 chatter

Is Gearbox working on a major new instalment of Halo for Microsoft? That's been the hot rumour since Randy Pitchford revealed his studio had a "huge" secret game in the works. And questioned by EGTV earlier this month, Pitchford skirted around the issue, falling short of a denial.

Asked outright, he replied: "Well, I'll tell you, there's a couple of games that Gearbox has announced. We've announced borderlands, and we've announced Aliens Colonial Marines with SEGA and Fox, and it's no secret that we have some other things in development."

Is one of those Halo? "Haha! We're not going to talk about anything..." At which point a PR man practically leaped from his seat to end the interview, mucking in with his own, "We can't talk about that." Here's a transcript of the rest of the conversation:

Eurogamer: That's not a no, though.

Pitchford: I appreciate why you're asking.

Eurogamer: That's not a no.

Pitchford: Haha! You got any other curveballs for me?

Eurogamer I don't think it was much of a curveball. It's quite a straight question...

Pitchford: It is a straight question, and it is fair. But you understand my... [recording terminated].

Gearbox has form here, having worked with Bungie and Microsoft to bring the original Halo onto PC. And Bungie, which split from Microsoft in 2007, has revealed that Halo 3: ODST and next year's Halo: Reach will be its final contributions to the universe.

So, is Gearbox working on Halo 4? Randy isn't saying. You can watch the exchange over on EGTV and judge for yourself, but with ODST rolling out soon and Reach due next autumn, don't expect anything official for a while.

Meanwhile, you can read our latest impressions of Gearbox's next title, Borderlands, elsewhere on Eurogamer.