Former Bungie, Halo Creative Director Returns to Microsoft

BlameTheWizards

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Former Bungie, Halo Creative Director Returns to Microsoft

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/XboxQwik/statuses/421411347553742848]

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: <a href=http://www.polygon.com/2014/1/9/5293310/former-bungie-bigwig-joe-staten-returns-to-microsoft>Polygon


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Imperioratorex Caprae

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May 15, 2010
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BlameTheWizards said:
As many of you are no doubt aware, Bungie had once been owned by Microsoft where the studio created the Halo franchise.
Eh, thats a bit inaccurate. Bungie was already developing Halo prior to Microsoft's acquisition. But you could say without Microsoft's using Halo to launch the FPS console era, there may not have been sequels or such huge success as it was primarily going to be a PC/MAC only game before that. But then we can't say that for sure either. It may have been a success without the Xbox but not as widely distributed.
 

Alpha Maeko

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Apr 14, 2010
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"No, he totally didn't just get fired or bought out or quit or any sort of drama. He's just with us now, for no reason, and left those guys, for no reason."

Gotta love how it's presented in a very non-news sort of fashion.

"So, he's leaving his current job, and going into another one with a different company. Why?"

"LOL IM NOT TELLING YOU HAHAH IM MICRSFT WHO NEEDS REASONS, AMIRITE?"
 

electric method

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Jul 20, 2010
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Wow. Of all the people to leave Bungie (I had not heard this news until now) Joe Staten is the last person I'd have thought of; let alone went back to work for Microsoft. If I recall this right Mr. Staten was one of the creators/founders of Bungie. In any event, best wishes to Joe Staten in his future endeavors post Bungie.
 

gamegod25

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Alpha Maeko said:
"No, he totally didn't just get fired or bought out or quit or any sort of drama. He's just with us now, for no reason, and left those guys, for no reason."

Gotta love how it's presented in a very non-news sort of fashion.

"So, he's leaving his current job, and going into another one with a different company. Why?"

"LOL IM NOT TELLING YOU HAHAH IM MICRSFT WHO NEEDS REASONS, AMIRITE?"
There may not be anything scandalous about it but there has to be some reason for it. People don't change employers on a whim with no reasoning behind it. Maybe its a personal one, and I respect that, but you can't expect me to believe there was no reason whatsoever.
 

Grabehn

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So I'd assume that Destiny wasn't Halo enough so he went back to make Halo.
 

Xdeser2

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Alpha Maeko said:
"No, he totally didn't just get fired or bought out or quit or any sort of drama. He's just with us now, for no reason, and left those guys, for no reason."

Gotta love how it's presented in a very non-news sort of fashion.

"So, he's leaving his current job, and going into another one with a different company. Why?"

"LOL IM NOT TELLING YOU HAHAH IM MICRSFT WHO NEEDS REASONS, AMIRITE?"
....Its entirely possible that, like most things that happen, there was no drama involved whatsoever.