Halo and Future veteran Joseph Staten simply introduced that he’s becoming a member of Netflix Video games as its latest artistic director, and that he’ll be helming “a brand-new AAA multiplatform sport and unique IP.”
“In my work life, there’s nothing I like greater than collaborating with others to construct worlds full of iconic characters, deep mysteries, and countless adventures,” he wrote on Twitter.
Staten has a prolonged historical past with Bungie and 343 Industries. In response to his LinkedIn profile, he served in numerous roles at each firms since 1998, beginning along with his position as a product supervisor on Fantasy II: Soulblighter at Bungie. He then went on to work because the director of cinematics and author for Halo: Fight Advanced, Halo 2, and Halo 3 . He wrote a novel set within the Halo universe referred to as Halo: Contact Harvest and labored as artistic director on Halo 3: ODST earlier than switching over to Bungie’s subsequent darling: Future, the place he was co-creative director. Staten left Bungie in 2013, and labored for Microsoft as a senior artistic director for a while, however was introduced again into the Halo fold at 343 Industries as Marketing campaign Mission Lead for Halo Infinite in 2020, presumably to assist the sport after it was delayed on account of high quality considerations. His title was finally modified to move of artistic.
On April 7, Staten introduced that he could be departing Xbox. Three months earlier than his most up-to-date departure, he left 343 Industries to work within the publishing facet of Xbox. The studio had undergone important restructuring, and Bloomberg’s report indicated that his former place was misplaced to that restructuring. Kotaku reached out to Staten over DMs to ask why he selected Netflix over different builders, however didn’t obtain a response by the point of publication.
Netflix at the moment homes over 50 video games, and virtually all of them are indies. Final November, journalists noticed Netflix job listings that urged the streaming big was growing their first PC title. The sport director place requested for Unreal Engine expertise and first-person shooter expertise. So it’s doable that we’ll be seeing one other shooter from Staten someday sooner or later.
Whereas Netflix has invested considerably in growing a gaming division, it’s not an actual contender within the area but. Actually, lots of people don’t even know learn how to play the video games that the streaming big does have. Simply final yr, Netflix revealed knowledge that confirmed just one p.c of its subscribers have been enjoying its video games. In the meantime, the corporate misplaced over 1,000,000 subscribers within the second quarter final yr. Recreation growth is an costly and dangerous endeavor, and tech giants like Google and Amazon have already proven that tech big cash doesn’t essentially translate into success. It’ll be a while earlier than we are able to see if Staten’s management will change the narrative.
