Alright, Ranters. You went to the midnight launch. You played it. You beat it. And every week you keep coming back to Bungie's swan song in the multiplayer arena. You knew that Halo: Reach is the last game in the series you'll get from the critically acclaimed developer, as they've entered a 10 year exclusivity agreement with the world's largest publisher, Activision Blizzard. And ever since you've read about that deal, all you could think about is what's coming next from the house that Master Chief built.

As one of the speakers for this year's Game Developers Conference Online 2010, Bungie Creative Director Joe Staten might have let some of the details slip. Gamasutra news editor and Kotaku contributing columnist Leigh Alexander was in attendance for "Writing the Whirlwind: 10 Years on the Frontlines Of HALO Storytelling and Beyond," a keynote being delivered by Staten this morning. In closing his GDC keynote, Staten took part in a small Q&A session with his audience where he was asked about Bungie's future project with Activision.

Exploring the Twitterverse for Stanton's full reply, Leigh tweeted that his response was as follows:

"Wouldn't it be great if we could make a world that was always there for you? Wow. That would be great."

Expressing his sadness that gamers only get to experience the worlds and mythologies that Bungie has created every time they release a new title, Joe says 'A world that was always there for you.' Interesting. Using the vocabulary that Staten uses, it's hard to read that and not think of some sort of persistent world... you know, the kind that you see in MMOs.

Kotaku ruminates on the possibility of an FPS MMO and claims they've heard whisperings of such. Personally, I think that Bungie could very well be working on an MMO, but I doubt it's an FPS. They've proven not only to themselves but to the gaming public that they know how to make shooters; I suspect they'd be more inclined to experiment in a different genre.

What do you think, Ranters? Is it reasonable to think Bungie is going to join the MMO space after reading Staten's cryptic comments? What do YOU want to see next from Bungie? You know we love your opinions, speak your mind in the comments below.

Source: Gamasutra (via Kotaku)