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Very little information on Bungie’s latest game in development – possibly the last between Microsoft and Bungie as partners – Halo: Reach, has been released to the public, other than it may very well be the largest game yet from Bungie. What has been shown by Microsoft and Bungie is a small teaser that covers the fall of the planet Reach, a pivotal time point in Halo lore. When asked about the game, Bungie community manager Brian Jarrard answered:

"Reach is going to be a tough project for us to wrap just because the scope is really big – it’s up there," said Jarrard. "It’ll probably be our biggest game ever just in terms of the amount of people working on it and the expectations for it. I mean, it’s a big deal for us."

Personally, I thought this would be a small game, focused on the Halo universe; like Halo 3: ODST. The way Jerrard explains it, it seems like I was wrong, and that Reach will be much bigger than I ever imagined.

Bungie’s back in action following Halo 3: ODST

"I know just for at least the next year our hardcore focus is going to be on getting Reach done and awesome and hopefully getting people excited about it," he said.

Back when Halo: Recon was announced, and before it become Halo 3: ODST, both Brian Jerrard and Joe Staten at Bungie separately stated that the game wasn’t going to be a full retail experience. Staten said, "We do not view this as a $60 title," while Jerrard remarked, "I think this is going to be a good value and a lot of content but we’re not viewing this as sort of a full game release in the sense of Halo 3." When pressed further about pricing, Jerrard said that it was too soon to tell, but that they were thinking of something "value-oriented."

Joystiq contacted Bungie and Microsoft for comment today, because while pricing was revealed at E3, they didn’t have a full explanation for the full retail approach.