Bungie mystery game

Submitted by David Hughes on 2011-02-11

No one knows what 'mystery game' Bungie is working on as part of its 10-year deal with Activision, but the game will likely release in 2011.

The big news surrounding Activision's most recent financial report has focused on the closure of its Guitar Hero franchise as well as a number of dramatic restructuring moves. These included the cancellation of several titles, closure of at least one studio, and will reportedly involve a total of 500 layoffs.
Big news for the company, but a small reference in the report may be even bigger news for gamers. In discussing its outlook for 2011, Activision specifically references "a new property from Bungie" as guidance for investors. While the company does also mention Blizzard titles in development as well, and no one knows if Diablo III will actually make it out in 2011, the company would hardly mention a property that no one knows anything about in its guidance for the year if something was not going to happen.
Given that the deal was inked last fall, and Bungie has hinted about a new I.P. in its weekly updates for quite a while, it may come out from under wraps relatively soon. A logical time for a public reveal would be at E3 in June, with a release window for the end of 2011 or early 2012. Considering that Activision is the 'house of Call of Duty', and assuming Bungie's new I.P. remains in the FPS genre, a holiday release might be asking too much - but revealing it to the world before 2011 is over will be necessary to please Activision's investors. Also, 2010 (and 2011 to date, for that matter) have demonstrated spring releases can be just as lucrative as holiday ones.
The other rumor surrounding Bungie is the supposed leak of the next map pack for Halo: Reach by French fan site. The leak occurred Wednesday, after which the site briefly went offline, but the page is live as of this writing. According to the report, the new map pack will be called the "Defiant Map Pack" and includes three maps: Highlands, Condemned, and Unearthed. Take that rumor for what it's worth, but given that the Noble Map Pack released November 31st, the game is due for another map pack soon. Microsoft controls the fate of Halo: Reach still, and a likely release would be sometime in March after the conclusion of the XBLA House Party promotion.