E3 08: Bungie confirms that E3 announcement was pulled

Halo developer Bungie has confirmed that the much-rumoured announcement it was prepping for E3 did exist, but that it was pulled by the developer’s publisher at the last moment.

The story so far runs like this: Pre-E3 rumours began to mount that something Halo related was being planned for E3, with some sources talking of a squad-based shooter that didn’t star the iconic Master Chief. On Monday Bungie’s website was updated with a teaser image suggesting something exciting was on the way.

Then the Microsoft conference came and went without so much as a mention of either Bungie or the Halo franchise. Subsequently, yesterday in an interview with MTV, Xbox boss Don Mattrick confirmed that Microsoft IS working with Bungie on a new Halo project that is not the delayed Halo Wars or the ongoing Peter Jackson Halo project.

Now Bungie president Harold Ryan has placed a splash screen on the studio’s home page confirming that an announcement was indeed scheduled for E3. It reads:

For the last several months, we’ve been building toward a reveal of something exciting that Bungie is working on. We were looking forward to sharing that with our fan community during the week of E3. However, those plans were just changed by our publisher.

We realize that many of our fans are disappointed by this turn of events; members of the Bungie team share that disappointment.

When the right time comes, we look forward to sharing this exciting announcement with you. Until then, we appreciate your continued support and patience.”

Though Microsoft is not explicitly named in the statement, it is understood that Bungie still has an exclusive publishing agreement with Microsoft, meaning that, for once, maybe the rumours were in fact true.