Robbie Bach sat down with GameGuru.in while in India announcing the launch of Xbox Live in that country. Bach discusses the relationship with Bungie now that the studio has split from Microsoft. Details of the interview and a juicy Halo rumor behind the jump.

Bach was asked about how Microsoft Game Studios has been affected by the departure of Bungie and by other studios, like Bioware, Bizarre, and Pandemic, partnering with other publishers and this was his response

Let’s make sure we are very clear on the record. Bungie Studios still has a very close relationship with Microsoft. They will continue to do work with us and will continue to build products for us and we’ll have access to their content. We’ve changed the nature economic relationship with them, but they are absolutely going be working with us and we value that relation.

The other thing I’ll say is in the content space, you are constantly moving in and out with different producers, different content companies. What we have here is some companies who have decided to go in different directions or been bought by somebody else. We’ve also established new relations with people and you’ll see those new relations come forward over time. I’m actually very confident about Microsoft’s lineup next year! People forget that we have several great studios internally who are doing incredible work and will continue to do so, and I think we’ll be just fine with the titles that we have in the next 12-24 months.

Microsoft will be utilizing that close relationship if the newest Halo rumor is true. GamingTarget is reporting that the rumor mill section of December’s EGM includes a rumor that a Halo MMO-FPS is in the works for the 360. The question now is whether or not Peter Jackson’s Halo project is somehow related to this rumor. Bach had this to say on Jackson’s foray into the Halo universe.

Well yeah, Peter Jackson is Peter Jackson and I think he’s going to produce great stuff and I’m excited about it. He’ll bring his creativity to the table with the Bungie team. I think there will be some real fancy stuff.

While it’s possible that the Halo MMO and Peter Jackson’s project are related, don’t bet on it. Jackson will probably be favoring a much more cinematic experience, and Microsoft has been referring to the project as “interactive entertainment” rather than a video game. Seeing how Bungie is slightly less secretive than the CIA, don’t expect to see confirmation or denial of the rumor any time soon.

Thanks to halofan1boy for submitting.