Joseph Staten simply left Microsoft. Technically it didn’t actually change something when speaking about the way forward for Halo in comparison with when he left Halo developer 343 Industries to return to his earlier position at Xbox Publishing again in January. That got here amidst the layoff-fueled shakeup on the studio that noticed many senior leads go away both at the moment or prior to now 12 months since Halo Infinite first shipped. And but one way or the other, his full severance from Microsoft feels a bit extra somber for this longtime Halo fan, as a result of it implies that he’s unlikely to have a lot, if any, affect on the way forward for the franchise – which he nonetheless might’ve from his Xbox Publishing perch.
And so whereas it’s truthful to marvel the place Halo is heading from right here – I’ll get to that in a bit – I needed to take the chance to specific my gratitude for somebody that had a significant hand in creating a few of my favourite video games of all time. Staten was a Bungie “Grizzled Historical,” the studio’s inside time period for somebody who’d been on the firm for an extended, very long time. That is the person who wrote the unique Halo trilogy. You bear in mind, the near-perfect first recreation – the one whose memorable marketing campaign and characters single-handedly turned the Xbox into a significant participant within the console house – the neatly advised and surprising sequel that had you taking part in as The Arbiter for a part of the journey, and the trilogy capper that gave Grasp Chief and associates closure and that means whereas nonetheless leaving a glimmer of hope that Spartan-117 may in the future return. “Wake me… while you want me.”
However Staten wasn’t accomplished with Halo there. He adopted that by directing Halo 3: ODST, the movie noir-inspired Halo recreation that took you out of the MJOLNIR armor and into the boots of a regular-ol’ human. The Covenant unhealthy guys (properly, besides the Grunts… who, by the way in which, have been voiced by Staten) appeared quite a bit larger as an everyday individual than as a seven-foot-tall tremendous soldier. And all of it was set in a pseudo-open hub world the place you possibly can go the place you needed to and revisit areas while you needed or wanted to. Every thing was watched over by the mysterious Superintendent AI (“Hold it clear!”), which, coincidentally, was additionally voiced by Staten. And the temper was set by Halo composer Marty O’Donnell’s jazz-inspired, piano-heavy soundtrack that made ODST really feel in contrast to every other Halo recreation. It’s, to at the present time, nonetheless beloved by Halo followers and, for some, stays their favourite Halo recreation ever.
After which, after all, we get to Halo Infinite. Its six-year improvement cycle was messy, even simply from what we acquired to see publicly. And after the gameplay debut for the Xbox Sequence X’s would-be day-one flagship launch title went infamously poorly, Microsoft took the daring and considerably embarrassing however completely obligatory step of delaying Infinite out of the Sequence X’s launch window and bringing Joseph Staten into 343 because the mission’s inventive director. Although I do know there are followers on the market who’d maintain Joseph accountable for making powerful selections like slicing split-screen co-op and delaying Forge – and as inventive director the buck stops with him – within the larger image, have a look at the place Halo was at earlier than Staten arrived (i.e. Craig) and have a look at the marketing campaign we in the end acquired in December of 2021. We acquired an excellent single-player marketing campaign – one which soft-rebooted Halo whereas nonetheless persevering with Chief’s story. And one, I would add, that efficiently washed the unhealthy style of Halo 5’s disastrous marketing campaign out of our mouths. No, Staten didn’t do it alone, however he however deserves numerous credit score for pulling Halo Infinite collectively like he did.
Staten did not do it alone, however he however deserves numerous credit score for pulling Halo Infinite collectively like he did.
And as I discussed earlier, Halo’s future is however murky. It appears extremely unlikely we’ll get any marketing campaign content material in anyway – be it a side-story DLC with Blue Workforce (as they’re talked about in an audio log) or a full-blown “Halo 7” – anytime within the subsequent a number of years or maybe extra. One other huge query is, “Who’s going to guide Halo into the long run?” It received’t be Staten, whom I’d have trusted implicitly. As a substitute, it could be a youthful technology of recreation improvement expertise at 343 – much like the younger weapons at id Software program efficiently reinventing Doom for the trendy period in 2016 – or 343 may look to poach big-name expertise from different studios.
However that’s a dialog for an additional day. For now, I’d like to specific my appreciation and gratitude to Joseph Staten for having such an enormous hand in creating a lot of the very best Halo there’s ever been: Halo: Fight Developed, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo Infinite. That’s quite a bit for him to be happy with, and I’m so glad I acquired to play these video games as they got here out and benefit from the water-cooler dialog that every one generated – and speak to him about his nice journey.
Get pleasure from your subsequent journey, Joseph, and thanks for all the nice Halo.