First of all it could seem like the next Halo game, or the mythical Halo 3 as Kim called it, will not be coming to Xbox 360 before the end of 2006. Since Kim named the recently announced Viva Piñata as "most important game of 2006”, it does seem like Microsoft is expecting Bungie’s next project to be ready some time in 2007. Of course this is pure speculation, but we do agree with CVG that it is highly unlikely that Microsoft would rate “Halo 3” less important than Viva Piñata.

However the most interesting bit of info to come out of Shane Kim when questioned about “Halo 3” was that an announcement regarding the next Halo game was just around the corner.

"We'll be talking about anything we're doing in the Halo universe - whether that's Halo 3 as I call it or anything else - at the right time. That time will be soon."

And maybe even more interesting is the way he referred to the game, “anything we're doing in the Halo universe”, could this possibly mean that the next Halo will not be anything like Halo and Halo 2 at all? Could Bungie be working on some sort of squad-based shooter, or maybe an RTS game set in the Halo universe? Or could it be an RPG or even a MMO game?

The only thing certain is that we will know soon enough, most likely in May when E3 kicks off.