New Bungie game set in steampunk genre?

What we heard: When Bungie signed a 10-year exclusive publishing deal with Activision in April 2010, the studio that was made famous by the Halo series announced it would leave the franchise for an entirely new universe.

In the more than a year that's followed, Bungie and Activision have offered few details concerning the project--rumored to be called Destiny--only confirming that the game will arrive for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. Activision's CEO of publishing Eric Hirshberg recently told GameSpot he's "dying" to talk about it.

Now it appears some new intelligence may have trickled out concerning the new game. A Google Group--Seattle Steamrats--put out a call for a Seattle fans to have their pictures taken for an upcoming video game.

The participants were to dress in Victorian British military, French military, Confederate, or "Pirate-y themed" clothing. The connection to Bungie? The steampunk photo shoot took place at Bungie Studios in Washington state on June 3.

The official story: When asked if the game in question was in development at Bungie, Spain told GameSpot, "No, we were actually shooting for another video game company in space borrowed from the Bungie offices. The game we were shooting for is going to be on the iPad."

Bogus or not bogus: Most likely bogus that this casting call had anything to do with Bungie's new project. Gamers hoping to learn of Bungie's new project are going to have to wait a while, as the shop said on Friday it won't be divulging information on the new game for quite some time.