Brothers in Arms developer Gearbox has been rumored to be working on Halo 4 for a solid year now. And with CEO Randy Pitchford refusing to answer whether or not that’s true when asked about it during an interview a few days ago (the same one where he admitted he was “terrified” of Borderlands‘ release), the chances of the rumors having some merit seemed pretty good. But no, Gearbox is not working on Halo 4. Or any other Halo title for that matter.

The news comes through the official Twitter account for Halo Waypoint where Microsoft has confirmed that “For the record, Gearbox is NOT working on a Halo title for Microsoft.”

But why wouldn’t Pitchford just say so himself? We’re guessing he saw an opportunity to grab some extra attention for the company and took it. Borderlands‘ release is just around the corner after all and you can’t beat free press. Either that or he was just having fun, which would explain that giant smile he was wearing when ducking the question. Yeah that one, up there.