At the start of this year when Microsoft announced mass layoffs and some changes within the Xbox division, it was also revealed Halo Infinite's Head of Creative Joseph Staten would be rejoining Xbox Game Studios Publishing.
It's admittedly been quite hard for some fans to accept, but now it seems his move back to this part of the Xbox team is well and truly complete. As highlighted on Reddit, Joe has now updated his Twitter profile - appearing to reconfirm his departure. His role is now officially "partner and creative director at Xbox Publishing":
@joestaten: "Partner, Creative Director at @XboxPublishing."
In other words, if you were hoping to see him help out with Halo Infinite a little more, he really has left 343 Industries now. Joe's time with the Halo series goes back to the Bungie days when he worked on the earlier entries as a cinematic director and writer.
Joe's profile update aligns with the release of Halo Infinite Season 3 yesterday. Earlier before, he mentioned how proud he was of the team at 343 and was excited about what's coming next:
Joe originally announced his return to the Halo series back in 2020 - mentioning at the time how he would be supporting the campaign team and guiding the overall development of the game as project lead. Before this move, Joe had been a part of Xbox Game Studios since 2014.
How do you think 343 Industries will go without Joe's leadership? Have you tried out Season 3 yet? Comment below.
[source reddit.com]
Comments 4
Looking at his involvement with Halo, I think he may be done with Halo creatively. He was a writer but his story was scrapped during difficult development and then retconned by others. That must have been a big blow. He departed and wrote a book with full creative control and then led ODST with full creative control. That may have been his closure with the franchise, returning to Halo now is returning to a fiction at odds with the one he wrote. So it's likely that joining Infinite was only business.
Or, he will return when Microsoft have figured out what the heck to do with Halo and have studios on board.
If season 3 is anything to go by 343 is coming pretty well. Given this story is an extension of season 3 though, it’s hard to say how much Joe has to do with it. I don’t know if he has anything to do with the multiplayer story.
Looking forward to where the rest of the season goes. It all seems to be leading to a really interesting taste on Infection. Where instead of the flood, Iratus, the Banished AI, takes over the spartan and makes them go bloodlust. I mean, that’s a great setup!
Death for you. TRIUMPH FOR ME!!
@BrilliantBill Staten wrote Halo 2 but the story was pulled apart as levels were cut during development. The original ending to Halo 2 was one of many things cut, it was supposed to be a big reveal.
Staten went away and wrote the book Contact Harvest which hinted at this big reveal. Halo 3 didn't feature Halo 2's scrapped ending but did hint at the same reveal.
However, Halo 3's marketing and everything 343i onwards, took things in a different direction which nullified Staten's ideas and retconned the hints left in Halo 1, 2, 3 and Contact Harvest.
He then created the world and plot of Destiny before it was also ripped apart and repurposed by Jason Jones' decision to make Destiny non-linear from the get go.
So I don't imagine the passion is there anymore.
*The reveal concerns the Forerunners and if anyone wants to know more you can search for Halo 2's original storyboards to see it. Staten has confirmed this since in an interview with IGN.
@Benjamin That's interesting.
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