"Halo" veteran leaves Microsoft to produce AAA games for Netflix

"Halo" veteran Joseph Staten is leaving Microsoft and moving to Netflix in the role of Creative Director. Staten was the author responsible for the original "Halo" trilogy at Bungie and creative director for "Halo 3: ODST". He was also instrumental in getting the difficult development of "Halo Infinite" back on track at 343 Industries.

After the release of "Halo Infinite", 343 Industries was hit by a wave of redundancies. In addition, due to "incompetent management", numerous well-known creatives said goodbye to the "Halo" development studio - including Joseph Staten. You can read the whole drama surrounding 343 Industries here:

Staten switched back to the publishing side of Microsoft and left the company completely shortly afterwards. It is now clear where the former "Halo" director will tackle his next AAA project.

Netflix gets serious about gaming

At Netflix, Staten will work as Creative Director on an as yet unannounced AAA multiplatform game. It is said to be a completely new game.

In recent weeks and months, Netflix has already announced and realised various games, acquisitions and collaborations in the gaming sector. So far, the company has focussed primarily on indie and smaller mobile games. With the prominent addition of "Halo", the gaming division wants to gain a foothold in the development of more expensive AAA games for multiple platforms for the first time.

The streaming service founded a new studio for Netflix Games in Helsinki in September last year. It also acquired the mobile game studios "Next Games" and "Boss Fight Entertainment" and the "Oxenfree" indie developer "Night School Studio". The Netflix subscription recently included high-calibre titles such as the indie hit "Terra Nil" and the Ubisoft game "Valiant Hearts: Coming Home".