Yeah, they switched it to 343 Industries, which is (pretty sure) a Microsoft subsidiary they created just to manage Halo (343 Guilty Spark was the monitor in the first game). Bungie is moving on to bigger and better things now. Not sure what, there were rumors of an MMO but that turned out to be a joke. Not sure how the future of the series will unfold with another studio managing it, but considering all that they've got in the franchise I doubt they'd leave it in shitty hands (it's happened before though).
I kinda feel the opposite way. As much as I have invested in the mythology of the universe, I CAN'T FUCKING WAIT to see it get continued with the original characters. I almost jumped out of my chair when I first watched that Halo 4 trailer. I mean the legendary ending to Halo 3 basically hinted at this, with the ship slowly drifting toward some (obviously inhabited) planet.
And yeah, the pistol was awesome, especially in ODST. Headshots were insta-kills on the grunts. They kinda toned it down in Reach. Also I'm wondering if this trailer means we're gonna get zero-g jetpack fights.
Only a year and a half to wait, now...