Halo 3: Recon said to be final installment for the series

Next fall's Halo 3: Recon will be the last installment in the Halo series, according to developer Bungie, putting to rest -- as much as is possible in the ever-erratic and unpredictable video game industry -- rumors that Master Chief will be woken from the slumber he was put into at the end of Halo 3 to return for a fourth installment of one of the most popular games of the decade.

Halo 3: Recon, due for release in fall 2009, takes place in the Halo universe but will feature a different protagonist than the faceless Master Chief. Officially it takes place during some of the events of Halo 2. Based on statements from Bungie and trailer footage, the game appears to combine traditional, heavy-duty, Halo-style combat with stealth missions. Details are otherwise scarce: Rather than being a one-man army with the fate of the universe on your shoulders, you're playing a lone soldier stuck behind Covenant lines and won't be tripping across the universe like in the primary series. But what your mission is and how it fits in with the primary Halo story is still a mystery for now.

Of course, even though Bungie is saying this is the end of the line for the Halo series and that the Halo development team will soon be split up and its members moving on to other projects in the company, it would be foolish to count the series as completely out. The company's language on the subject is invariably couched as "I think...," and seeing a revival of the series at some point in time would be wholly unsurprising. Like Hollywood, the gaming business doesn't like to let its most popular franchises simply vanish (cough Mario cough), preferring instead to squeeze every last penny out of a popular series until it can stand no more. Given that the three core games in the Halo franchise have already earned over a billion dollars in total sales to date, there's clearly some life left here to take advantage of, no matter what Bungie says publicly.

LINK: Bungie: Recon is our last Halo trilogy project