We may be very close to knowing much more about what Bungie is up to next, as the studio has acknowledged leaks reported on Kotaku and IGN regarding its new game, reportedly called Destiny.

Bungie left Halo behind with 2010’s Halo: Reach, and signed a 10-year deal with Activision for a new, ambitious, multi-game franchise that would finally take Bungie beyond the Xbox platform.

The story goes that someone found a USB key at a coffee shop, and it included concept art and bullet point features regarding Destiny. These images and documents, sent to multiple outlets, come conveniently just a week before the Spike Video Game Awards, where numerous games receive their worldwide debut.

According to the documents, Destiny tells the story of a torn and tattered Earth that’s devastated--once again--by aliens. An enormous alien ship descends over humanity’s last major outpost, seemingly in protection of humanity. Why? No one knows, but it doesn’t matter: Earth has a protector. Players assume the role of “knights” assigned to fending off the surrounding threat and finding a solution.

The rumor’s always been that Bunge’s creating a sci-fi shooter MMO--PlanetSide done right--and while these documents hint at a large “social” aspect to this new game, it doesn’t make it explicit.

Bungie acknowledged the leak on its website, and even posted one of the leaked pieces of artwork.

“Go ahead,” said the company in a statement. “Take a peek. It’s alright. We weren't quite ready, but we will be soon, and we can’t wait to finally show you what we've really been up to. Stick around, we haven’t even started yet.”

Seems like something a studio would say if it had more to show awfully soon, huh? That’s just me speculating, though--I have no inside information of a Spike TV reveal. It just seems very suspicious and well-timed.