Microsoft closed out their press conference with the man that helped establish the console, Master Chief. Halo 4marks the first time that a Halo tittle has been developed outide of Bungie, who recently signed with Activitision. It appears the Halo 4 will take place right after the events of Halo 3's Legendary ending.
Developer 343 currently operates Halo Waypoint. Like Infinity Ward, it has coordinated numerous DLC for Halo Reach with Certain Affinity. Both are working on the HD remake of Halo: Combat Evolved as well. This new version uses the Halo Reach engine, and is expected to release in November, but if you never tried it, the original or non-HD version of Combat Envolved, is now 20 bucks on the Xbox live Marketplace. Remember Halo was a single player game (With local multi-player) before it introduced the online multi-player element in Halo 2 which lead to its global popularity. Halo 4 is expected to release in 2012.