Seriously after seeing what this team has done with Halo 4 they have the possibility of becoming a huge studio for MS.  I hqve one real question though.  Will MS allow them to create a new IP?

Because they should.  We already know Halo 5 and 6 are coming and while Im excited I would love to see 343 tackle something besides just Halo.  Technically and artistically 343 are brilliant.  So what do you think will MS let them work on a new IP next gen?

I hope they do... I wouldn't count on it though.

So i just learned that 343 is comprised of part bungie and a big portion of pandemic, which makes sense with the star wars comment recently and the understanding that many feel halo4s story is pretty swell.

Don't think microsoft would let them ever do a new ip.

They are booked with halo for I think atleast up to 2016 because they are contracted to make Halo5 and 6 by then. Idk what their ressources are in terms of manpower, if they can't work on 2 different big project at the same time I don't see it happening till halo6, and even then I would'nt be surprised if they trow more halo at us.

Every time they finish a Halo game, they're going to be working on the next one right away. No chance they work on a different IP until part 6 (the second trilogy) is finished. It could be a while.

I agree that for the forseeable future Halo 5 and 6 will take all their resources as Halo titles are massive big b7dget games.

But maybe MS will expand 343 a bit at somepoint. Enough for maybe a second team to work on something else. I hope so at least as 343 are VERY talented

They've got their hands full with Halo for the next 5 years or so easily. This is the same reason Bungie didn't put anything other than Halo-related projects out for more than a decade. Unless M$ grew 343 considerably or made an offshoot of the company, I doubt we'll see any new IPs from them in the foreseeable future.

That's not a bad thing though... after seeing what they've done with Halo 4, I'd rather they stay laser-focused on the next 2 games rather than trying to juggle other games in between. Kinda like what Retro did with the Metroid Prime series for Nintendo.

I think 343 is for just halo. maybe microsoft makes another developer for new IP?

Why did Bungie part with Microsoft, anyway? So they could work on their own IP? That's probably a clue right there. Seems like Halo is 343i's sole purpose for existing. They'll likely be working on Halo spin-offs between main installments.

By the way, "343 sluts" came up when I was searching for 343 Industries. Interesting.