UK, August 26, 2008 - Master Chief's next big outing could herald the launch of the next generation of consoles, with rumour abound that Halo 4 is to be amongst the first wave of titles for the Xbox 360's follow-up console.

Alluded to in the latest issue of Official Xbox Magazine, which has been thumbed by Joystiq, Gearbox is said to be working on the fourth instalment proper in the bestselling series. Gearbox's own Randy Pitchford – currently doing the rounds extolling the virtues of the studio's imminent Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway – was recently quoted as saying of the company's next project, "When you find out what this is, you'll likely agree that I can't oversell this one."

Gearbox is also currently at work on Aliens: Colonial Marines, a full-blooded first person take on the film series that's proved such a rich inspiration for the Halo universe.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/902/902774p1.html

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Assuming they've just begun development, and assuming that development of games for this next system takes a year longer than this generation, if this is true it will peg the nextbox at 2011-2012, roughly the time-frame a lot of us have been expecting for the next set of systems.

We've got Halo Wars coming this holiday, Peter Jackson's project likely next year, and whatever Bungie's Halo game is.  In addition to Halo 3, that'll be enough of this awesome series for this generation, especially considering that the Peter Jackson game is supposedly episodic in nature, so this would make sense.

Keep in mind that Gearbox is no stranger to the series, as they made the very solid PC port of the first game.