Rumors that Halo: Reach might be Natal-enabled were close to flatlining of late, but the subject never got a flat-out "no." Well, now it has. The studio says emphatically that it is not a Natal title.

That's the newsy news out of a fun-filled "mythbusters" post Bungie put up about Halo: Reach's development. Natal rumors had been fueled by two things. One, studio head Harold Ryan's comments over the summer that he "absolutely" thought Reach could be Natal-enabled. Two, a screenshot showing an off-center crosshair (above, annotation by Bungie), which some took to mean as evidence of motion-controlled shooting.

Well, Bungie says the screen shot was a mistake and even provides the bug report to go along with it. ("Impact: This makes the Internet freak out.") And then the studio says: "Halo: Reach is NOT a Natal title and is being developed expressly with the traditional Xbox 360 controller in mind." So there.

They also clear up issues regarding the HUD color (and HUD color customization) and other topics, so check it out at the link.

Bungie Weekly Update 01.29.10 [Bungie]

Thank god!

Great news!

Saw that coming. Most people don't want to hold an invisible gun.

Thank god how was that even supposed to work?

Great news.

Thank you Bungie! Also, I'm glad they came out and just flat said it, instead of something like "While I said that it absolutely could be natal enabled, I didn't mean that it would be, but that it could be, but as far as what will happen, I would talk about it it I could."