"Gearbox is NOT working on a Halo title for Microsoft," reads the update, with Joystiq having confirmed the account as a legitimate source for Microsoft statements.

Rumors of Gearbox helming Halo 4 cropped up last year, bolstered by its past experience with Halo PC and word that though Gearbox has lost its platform technology director to Microsoft's Halo team, she would somehow still "continue to help" Gearbox.

At the time, Gearbox president Randy Pitchford was teasing a "look-at-our-line-up-and-imagine-something-even-bigger kind of big" project, though recent revelations suggest he may have been referring to the studio's new Duke Nukem game.