Spong says its sources at Microsoft indicate that a new, non-Halo Bungie game will be announced at X06 very soon:

Speaking to a Microsoft source close to the management of the entire Xbox 360 project today, we were told that, “As far as things stand, Halo 3 is the last game [in the series] and it’s more than just ‘a thing to say’ which I know came as a surprise to everyone [at Microsoft Game Studios not involved with the decision-making process] when it was announced. A new game from Bungie, not Halo 4, will be announced soon and pre-production has begun. So if you’re looking for what to expect at X06, you should be looking at that.”

It seems Spong doesn’t really believe Halo 3 is the last Halo game, though, as they suggest that George Lucas-style a whole new trilogy will be announced later.

X06 will be held on September 27 and 28 of this year in Barcelona, Spain.

As always, keep your sodium chloride handy while reading.

We’re extremely late in mentioning this article, but Gamasutra did an interview with Wideload Games founder Alexander “The Man” Seropian last month as Part 2 of their Tour of Chicago. Seropian’s post-Bungie startup is based there, as Bungie was prior to the Microsoft buyout.

The article talks about things Seropian likes to do besides playing games, like cook and run, and a bit about what did and didn’t work during the 18 month development period for Stubbs. It also mentions that Seropian thinks this is the best time ever to be working in games development.

What it doesn’t talk much about is what Wideload is doing next, although there is this brief mention:

“Here’s something cryptic,” interjects Seropian. “I’ve always been in the business of making games for me.” He proceeds to outline his next title, with impressionistic detail: “I’ve discovered recently that I’ve gotten older. And I’ve got kids at home. And a family. And all the friends I have now are parents of kids my kid’s age.”

“And they don’t play videogames,” he continues to build. “So I discovered there’s a lot of people like me — who need to have something that doesn’t necessarily have headshots — but something that’s fun to play socially. So we’re working on something like that.”

So, something fun, something social, something not necessarily a shooter. Anyone have any guesses?