Wired News has posted an interview with Bungie’s content manager and spokesperson Frank O’Connor. Here are some of the highlights from the article:

‘WN: What’s Bungie’s relationship with Halo going forward? Are you guys committed to making the next major first-person shooter entry in this series, or is that still up in the air?

FO: We are definitely working on two Halo projects right now: the downloadable content and the Peter Jackson project. I’ve seen rumors that were literally just speculation that we were sick of working on Halo. That couldn’t be further from the truth. We always had and continue to have very tight almost control-freakish relationship with that IP, which of course belongs to Microsoft, but we’re still creatively associated with it and Microsoft trusts us to make cool Halo stuff in the short term. In the long term, who knows, if we have a cool story to tell in the Halo universe it’s certainly something we’d consider.’

‘WN: What’s Bungie’s relationship with Halo Wars?

FO: We consulted with them in the initial setup — Ensemble knows how to make RTS games, we just helped them with canon, and vehicles, and fiction, and that sort of stuff. And we continue to keep a close eye on it. But at this point we’re an interested observer. They’re making a fantastic product. And obviously we’re looking forward to playing it.’