Thrilled to welcome back Joe Staten to the Microsoft Studios family. #XboxOne— Mike Ybarra (@XboxQwik) January 9, 2014
Joe Staten served for four years as design director for Bungie’s Destiny until this past September.
After leaving long-time employer Bungie a few months ago, former Halo writer and creative director Joe Staten has been hired as a senior creative director for Microsoft Game Studios. The announcement came via Twitter, from Microsoft studio manager Michael Ybarra. “Thrilled to welcome back Joe Staten to the Microsoft Studios family,” he wrote. As many of you are no doubt aware, Bungie had once been owned by Microsoft where the studio created the Halo franchise.
Staten had been spending the last four years as a design director for Bungie’s latest game, Destiny, until his departure from the studio in September. According to Staten’s LinkedIn profile, his other credits at Bungie include writing duties on all the Halo games up through Halo: Reach. He also served as the creative director for the noir-inspired Halo 3: ODST.
“Over the past 15 years at Bungie, Joseph has been a key creative force behind some of gaming’s most iconic and celebrated franchises including Myth 2, Oni and virtually every Halo game leading up to Halo: Reach,” read a Microsoft statement sent to Polygon. Halo fans may also recognize him as the voice of the Covenant’s grunt troops and as the author of the tie-in novel Halo: Contact Harvest.
With the Halo franchise now being overseen by Microsoft’s 343 Studios, some may wonder if Staten will return to the franchise he helped create. Unfortunately, according to the official Microsoft statement, that will not be the case. “Joseph is not working directly on the next Halo title. As a senior creative director, he will help create the world’s best entertainment on Xbox, as well as help shape our franchise strategy for some Microsoft Studios titles. He’ll also be one of our leading ambassadors to the game development community, building on his many years of experience and relationships with developers and fans. We’re excited to share more about Joseph’s role in the future.”
Source: Polygon
