For weeks Bungie Aersopace buzz and speculation has been building around the Internet. Bungie fueled fan intrigue with a number of events and giveaways (free flaming Halo Reach helmets) leading up to the big reveal on Bungie Day - set for July 7th - and now it seems as though the developer has intentionally let the cat out of the bag a bit early. Maybe they were worried that hopes were getting too high - and that a lot of gamers might, in the short term, be disappointed by the reveal.

Bungie will surely be providing more specific details on Bungie Day but the developer has officially divulged that Bungie Aerospace is not a game - it's a platform for partnering with independent developers (specifically social and mobile).

According to a recent news post at Bungie.net, Bungie Aerospace is "a new venture that will connect us - and you - with what we hope will become a celebrated group of kick ass mobile developers who dream of seeing their own games rocket off the launch pad and touch down safely into the palms of your hot little hands."

As we hinted-at a couple weeks back, it seemed to be increasingly obvious that Aerospace would not be a new Bungie game. Instead, it appeared as though the developer was working on a larger platform that would help them down the line - in the interest of creating a rich and immersive multi-console future.

To bring all recent speculation full-circle, Bungie also revealed how the rumored Crimson trademark is connected to the project. Crimson is an upcoming mobile title, developed by Harebrained Schemes, that will serve as the first official Bungie Aerospace partnership.

Check out the official Bungie Aerospace details in the press release excerpt below:

Creators of Halo Establish Bungie AerospaceBungie Ignites Commitment to Independent Developers

Bellevue, WA (PR Web) June 30, 2011 — Today Bungie launched the first phase of a new venture, Bungie Aerospace, created to help independent developers create brilliant mobile and social games. Bungie Aerospace will give studios the creative freedom and the resources they need, like access to the Bungie.net platform and an audience with the incredible Bungie community, to launch their entertainment experiences into orbit.

“Bungie has always been passionate about making and playing great games, regardless of platform,” said Pete Parsons, Bungie COO. “Bungie Aerospace will allow us to explore game creation in multiple formats with some amazingly talented teams. Now that we’ve returned to our roots as an independent studio, we are in a position to launch Bungie Aerospace to support, foster, and elevate like-minded, independent developers.”

Bungie Aerospace’s first official partnership is with Seattle-based developer Harebrained Schemes, helmed by Jordan Weisman, the creative mind behind Halo 2’s “I Love Bees” Alternate Reality Game, FASA Interactive, Wizkids, the MechWarrior and Shadowrun universes, and dozens of other creations and companies. The studio’s first mobile gaming title, "Crimson," is set to launch this summer on iOS and Android devices.

More details about Harebrained Schemes' first mobile title developed under the Bungie Aerospace banner will be available in the weeks to come.

Interestingly enough, with the Bungie Aerospace and Crimson reveals out of the way, the focus now shifts back to the studio's long-rumored Destiny MMO.

Recent Bungie trademarks outed both the Destiny title and Destiny factions - so, unless Bungie developers have something else up their sleeves, it seems likely that we'll be hearing something about the upcoming title in the near future. Could Bungie have bumped the Aerospace reveal forward to make room for a Destiny teaser - despite previously claiming the new game would not be revealed on Bungie Day? We'll find out on July 7th.

Follow me on Twitter @benkendrick and let us know your thoughts on Bungie Aerospace.

Source: Bungie.net