Joseph Staten is Leaving Xbox and Microsoft - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 07 April 2023 / 4,418 Views
Joseph Staten, who was the head of creative on Halo Infinite and cinematic director on the original Halo trilogy, is leaving Xbox and Microsoft.
"Hey folks, I am indeed leaving Microsoft," said Staten via Twitter. "I'll have more info to share soon, but for now, I'd just like to thank all my Xbox colleagues for all their understanding and support as I embark on a new adventure."
A Microsoft spokesperson in a statement sent to IGN said, "We're grateful for Joseph's contributions to the Halo franchise and Xbox as a whole. We wish him all the best in his new adventure.”
Hey folks, I am indeed leaving Microsoft. I'll have more info to share soon, but for now, I'd just like to thank all my @Xbox colleagues for all their understanding and support as I embark on a new adventure. https://t.co/oMR0LXOzZb
— Joseph Staten (@joestaten) April 8, 2023
He started working at Bungie in the 1990's and was responsible for writing, editing, and directing cutscenes on the original Halo trilogy. He stayed with Bungie after they split with Microsoft, but left in 2013 and rejoined Microsoft in 2014 to work at Xbox Game Studios Publishing.
In 2020, Staten joined 343 Industries as a leader to help with development on Halo Infinite. It was reported in January of this year Staten was leaving 343 Industries to rejoin Xbox Game Studios Publishing.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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A very talented individual for sure. Hope for the best with his next projects I'll be sure to keep an eye on those.
What is going on the Xbox developmental division!?
Everyone be leaving left right n center?
They need to patch these holes or they will start crumbling down.
He's owed major props for his contributions. Best of luck to ya, Staten.
He managed to do all he could with getting infinite "done" and is such a big part of the franchise. I'm even more worried for the future of halo now, but wish him all the best!
i'm not sure about that anymore, the Halo franchise has been on a bad state for years, and the last release is arguable the worst, they even let a mediocre franchise like COD toke the lead and now they are making billions, although Halo is should have been the franchise that is leading the online-shooter genre, and with the recent AB acquisition it seems that even Microsoft is now betting on COD to become their big franchise instead of Halo, which is sad for me personally as a fan of the OG Halo games and someone who doesn't like COD games
I disagree with some of that. Halo is not in a bad state. It just isn't in the incredibly great state that it was 15 years ago. But, there was never any realistic chance of it maintaining that high level forever.
Really, one of the biggest problems the halo franchise has is the insanely high expectations set by the first three games.
You raise the point that the last game is arguably the worst. But that game was pretty well received. There has since been a lot of disappointment with the content flow. But nobody argues that it's a bad game. If that's the worst that Halo has, I'd say the franchise is doing reasonably well.
Come on Bend Studios to work on Syphon Filters or Sucker Punch. Guerrilla Games to work on Killzone would be even better, but I doubt he would move there.
I'd personally be interested to see if he does any original work, but there's some potential for him across the AAA/indie arena. I could see him winding up at Skydance w/ Henning.
