In a new blog post for the game's passionate community of fans, 343 revealed that Joseph Staten, formerly of Bungie, is returning to the series to help close out Halo Infinite for its 2021 launch.
Staten previously served as a developer on every Bungie Halo game and even the original Destiny before joining Microsoft's first-party efforts in 2014. In a longer blog also discussing the game's delay and its free-to-play multiplayer intentions, 343 credited Staten with being a big reason for so many fans' love of the series.
"After helping launch Tell Me Why this week, he'll be coming on board as project lead for campaign as we push towards our 2021 release. The team has been working hard realizing our vision for campaign and we’re happy to have Joseph’s help to get it to the finish line.
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!
If you skimmed it, Staten is taking over as "project lead" to help get Halo Infinite "to the finish line." His return comes during a week where the team has had to bat down numerous dubious reports of the game's revised plans, including a further delay to 2022 and intentions to ditch the Xbox One version. 343 has clarified that neither is true. The game will release in 2021 on both current- and next-gen Xbox consoles as well as PC. An eventual Project xCloud version seems likely, but is not yet announced.
