No Halo: Reach reveal this year

Bungie has told Eurogamer that we won't be seeing anymore of Halo: Reach this year, following the game's high-profile announcement during last month's E3 Xbox conference.

"I would bet that we're not going to see it this year, only because we want ODST to shine this year," said Bungie's Lars Bakken, wearing an ODST t-shirt while sat in front of a big board with "ODST" stamped all over it. Gotcha.

In the meantime, however, expect lots of Reach teasing to feature in the imminent Halo 3 standalone expansion. "There are a lot of things like that," Bakken explained. "Like 'Remember Reach' spray-painted on the side of a wall. There's things like that littered all throughout the game that are cool little nods to fans. And that actually makes a lot more sense now that we had announced the Reach game."

Microsoft's Ryan Crosby - who wasn't wearing anything Halo-branded, but probably owns Xbox briefs - added: "Fictionally, Reach obviously happened beforehand and it's sort of one of those moments in the fiction that people would remember - certainly wouldn't forget easily."

As to what we can expect from the Reach experience, Crosby said: "It'll be familiarly Bungie in that it'll be big and epic and fun and people will want to play it."

It's already confirmed as an FPS, and ODST buyers will gain access to next year's beta. Halo: Reach is due for release on Xbox 360 in autumn 2010.

There's lots more Halo on Eurogamer today, in the form of a hands-on preview with ODST multiplayer, and a video interview with Bungie and Microsoft.