343 Industries Tapping Old Talent to Get Halo: Infinite Right

Way back in August, 343 Industries revealed some gameplay for Halo Infinite, and it was… not bad, per say? But it wasn’t exciting, and it certainly didn’t feel like the glorious return of a beloved (and historically very good) franchise. 343 Industries soon announced that the release date for the game would be pushed back to 2021, so they could work out the kinks and make it the best game they possibly could. But apparently, a mere delay isn’t enough to satisfy the beleaguered developers, and they’ve just announced they’re bringing some outside help to make Halo Infinite the best it can be.

Specifically, 343 Industries has requested that Microsoft send them Joseph Staten —one of the main writers and cutscene directors on earlier Halo games at Bungie, who was working on a different project for Microsoft not long ago. Microsoft, unsurprisingly, said yes.

As for why they wanted him specifically, Microsoft detailed in a blog post:

For those of you who don’t know Joseph Staten, he wore many hats while working at Bungie for all of their Halo titles and even Destiny before joining the Xbox Games Studios family in 2014. If you enjoy Halo’s storylines, characters, and overall universe, he’s definitely one of the key people you have to thank. As product lead on Halo Infinite, however, Joseph will be focused on supporting the campaign team’s existing, talented, creative leaders and ensuring they have everything they need to create an awesome Halo game. His return to the franchise excites me and we’re all looking forward to having him on board!

But he wasn’t the only new person roped into the project: Pierre Hintze, the former head of Microsoft’s Head of our Publishing Team (MCC), has also been drafted to help with the free-to-play parts of the game.

It has yet to be seen if two dudes will be enough to turn things around for this apparently struggling game, but Microsoft is unlikely to pull out any stops for its development: after all, this game will be their primary ammunition in the upcoming Xbox Series X/PS5 battle.

So they gotta get it right.