Halo 4 Rumor Update: Gearbox, id Staff Joining Microsoft's Halo Team

Update: Gearbox has confirmed Yu's departure with Shacknews, adding that she served as director of platform technology, not technology director.

To clarify, Gearbox stressed that Sean Reardon has served as its technology director for many years, and that the confusion between the two's titles in recent media reports is said to have created challenges for them both.

Original Story: Amidst rumors and speculation that Brothers in Arms creator Gearbox has been tasked with developing Halo 4 for the Xbox 720, Kotaku reports that Gearbox technology director Corrinne Yu will soon depart to lead Halo technology development at Microsoft.

"I accepted the offer to lead the team to build the engines and games for future Halo's on Xbox'es and PC's at Microsoft," reads a message supposedly penned by Yu. "I assure you I will continue to help Gearbox."

The message further stated that Yu, pictured above, will begin her new role as "Principle (Lead) Engine Architect of Halo Franchise Team" beginning September 15, 2008.

id art director Kenneth Scott, Yu's husband, appears to have joined his wife in her move to Microsoft's Washington headquarters, as he is no longer listed among id Software's staff and is now a member of the Microsoft Facebook group.

Microsoft has been beefing up its internal Halo team in recent months, with former Bungie content designer Frank O'Connor leaving the studio to work more closely Microsoft on Halo projects.

Rumors that Gearbox was handling Halo 4 emerged earlier this week, following an unconfirmed report in print publication Official Xbox Magazine.

The studio is known to have a "big" project in the works, with Gearbox president Randy Pitchford claiming that "look-at-our-line-up-and-imagine-something-even-bigger kind of big."

Having previously ported the original Halo to PC, Gearbox's currently lineup includes the WWII shooter Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway (PC, PS3, 360), the maraca-shaking music game Samba de Amigo (Wii), the sci-fi shooter Aliens: Colonial Marines (PC, PS3, 360) and the Diablo-like shooter-RPG Borderlands (PC, PS3, 360).

Meanwhile, at least three new Halo games are known to be in development: one from Halo creator Bungie, Ensemble's RTS effort Halo Wars (360) and a Microsoft-developed project from Peter Jackson.