343 Industries takes over Halo from Bungie on March 31

Bungie's confirmed the final handover of power on the Halo IP to 343 Industries will take place by March 31.

The original stalwarts of the series since 2001, the Seattle-based studio will transfer control on all things John-117 to the Microsoft first-party studio by that date. However, it will continue to keep historic data "for as long as the Internet and Bungie's data storage systems remain functional."

"Bungie will no longer be able to update game stats and player service records, to host new user generated content, or to operate the Bungie Pro service. All currently supported, Bungie-developed Halo titles will be impacted by this change," a post on the developer's site reads.

"Any replacement functionality, and all future Halo support, will be provided by Microsoft and 343 Industries via Halo Waypoint at http://halo.xbox.com."

It continued: "Thanks for making the Halo-era version of Bungie.net more successful than we could have possibly imagined. You complete us."

Bungie is working on a multiplaform brand new universe with Activision, which is still to be announced, while 343 is working on a new trilogy of Halo games, beginning with Halo 4 this holiday season following the release of Combat Evolved Anniversary last year.