Bungie backtracks on MMO claims

Developer Bungie has backtracked on claims made during a GDC presentation last week that the company was working on a massively multiplayer action title.

The description had been offered by network engineer David Aldridge in a session entitled "I Shot You First: Networking the Gameplay of Halo: Reach" but a post on the developer's website claims that it had just been a joke.

"Tired of pretending that he's not a -blam!-in' rock star from Mars, David Aldridge inhaled a huge hit of David Aldridge at GDC yesterday," read the blog entry. "Subsequently, his face melted off and children wept over his exploded body. After the childish tears, gelatinous gibs, and acrid smoke cleared, an industrious journalist noticed the final slide from David's GDC deck which apparently proclaimed that we were hiring for a 'massively...multiplayer action game.' Ruh oh.

"Now, in rehearsal Aldridge was convinced that everybody got the joke. It was all in the delivery, he assured us, and he was certain it was clear that he was playfully riffing off of the recent rumors. Unfortunately, most people can't figure David out - they can't process him. And we don't expect them to. You can't process David Aldridge with a normal brain. You'd need tiger blood and Adonis DNA."

The presentation's slide had led to reams of speculation as to whether or not the company could be working with Blizzard as part of the ten-year Activision deal, signed last year - but the developer seems keen to give nothing away.