Bungie founder confident in 343 Industries and Halo 4

Bungie founder and Halo co-creator Alex Seropian will be "pretty surprised" if Halo 4 isn't all that and a bag of chips.

"Halo is one of the crown jewels in the Microsoft gaming IP, if not the crown jewel, so you would expect nothing less than for them to take the time needed and apply the resources needed to make it great," he told Gamespot.

"I would be pretty surprised if they wiffed it.

"I will say the encouraging thing is that I know a lot of the folks at Microsoft working on it and they are great people. I'm very hopeful that the team there is very fantastic. They are certainly treating it with a lot of care and respect. And applying the resources you'd like to see applied to a franchise like that. I'm hopeful that it will continue to bring the high production value and cool experiences it's known for."

Seropian said he couldn't "be anything other than hopeful that it will be great" and anticipated new developers 343 Industries bringing something innovative to the table.

"Maybe it will bring a fresh perspective, and that's so hard because there's so many fans that are used to a particular thing that bringing something new is often," he said.

"It's hard to bring something new to a franchise that's so established."

Seropian farewelled Bungie to found Wideload Games in 2003, but the developer was acquired by Disney in 2009. Seropian left Disney earlier this month to launch Industrial Toys, a mobile-centric developer.

Halo 4, and Xbox 360 exclusive, is due during the holiday season, and is the first new, core entry to be developed outside Bungie.