TeamXbox.com is reporting on a rumor that Brothers in Arms developer Gearbox could possibly be taking the reigns of the Halo franchise and making the next game in the series. The author isn’t actually basing this on any specific statements concerning a Halo game, but is speculating on a forum post by CEO Randy Pitchford. In the letter, Pitchford is very ecstatic over a new project that the company is working on, and claims that it is the most important endeavor that they have ever set out upon. Here is an excerpt from the post concerning the secret project:

"I’ve started a new project. It’s big. It’s, like, look-at-our-line-up-and-imagine-something-even-bigger kind of big. I’m Directing it myself. I can’t mention it publicly yet. When you find out what this is, you’ll likely agree that I can’t oversell this one."

So now the question is: why does TeamXbox think that this necessarily translates into Gearbox working on the next Halo? They seem to be using a process of elimination, since there are not many big franchises that the studio could be working on, such as Mario, Quake, Half Life, etc. The company is known for its extraordinary work in the FPS genre with the Brothers in Arms games, and also worked on the PC port of the original Halo. It is also not known whether the developer could be working on Peter Jackson’s “Halo Chronicles” series, or a straight up sequel to Halo 3. This is a pretty long stretch as far as rumors go, but what if it’s true? Do you think Gearbox is a worthy successor to Bungie?