Bungie rules out Halo: Reach Natal support

Speculation has run rampant as to whether Bungie will integrate Microsoft's Project Natal into its top shooter franchise, Halo, ever since the motion-sensing device was revealed at the 2008 Electronic Entertainment Expo. Though Microsoft initially insinuated that Bungie may be delivering a compatible game for the device upon its launch--an event scheduled for this holiday--the publisher has also noted that Natal support in Halo won't happen "until it makes sense."

Now, it appears as if Natal support doesn't make sense for Halo: Reach, a game that is "probably" Bungie's last effort in the franchise. In a post to its Web site, Bungie stated that Halo: Reach will not make use of Project Natal when it arrives for the Xbox 360 later this year. The refutation comes after a recently released screenshot for the game showed an off-center targeting reticle, which some took as confirmation that the device would in fact be supported.

"Halo: Reach is NOT a Natal title and is being developed expressly with the traditional Xbox 360 controller in mind," the developer said in a post to its official site. (Emphasis in original.) As for the errant targeting reticle, Bungie said that it could be chalked up to a bug in the game's code ("Bug #15163 to be exact").

Depicting some of the same events that took place in the novel Halo: The Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund, Bungie's latest shooter will follow a squad of multiple Spartan soldiers. According to Microsoft, the six-Spartan group is Noble Squad, the military unit that will be the focus of the game. Halo: Reach will apparently chronicle their battles with the Covenant as they try to protect Reach's human inhabitants from their relentless onslaught.

For more information, check out GameSpot's previous coverage of Halo Reach.