‘Halo’ veteran Joseph Staten leaves ‘Infinite’ team to rejoin Xbox

Halo Infinite creative director Joseph Staten will be leaving 343 Industries to rejoin Xbox‘s publishing division, following mass layoffs and restructuring efforts within Microsoft.

According to Bloomberg, 343 Industries studio head Pierre Hintze told staff via email that the company “made the difficult decision to restructure elements of our team, which means some roles are being eliminated.”

Staten is a Halo veteran who started as the cinematics director for Combat Evolved before moving to a writing role for Halo 2 and 3. Prior to Hintze’s email, Staten had been working with the Halo Infinite team since 2020.

While Staten will ultimately be remaining at Microsoft, yesterday (January 18) Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that it would be laying off 10,000 workers over the course of 2023.

Nadella said the decisions were “difficult, but necessary” and explained Microsoft would be “divesting” in certain areas, which Bloomberg claims will hit Microsoft’s HoloLens and engineering divisions.

While Nadella’s statement did not touch on the company’s gaming divisions, Bloomberg reports that Microsoft has made cuts to ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Starfield developer Bethesda.

Microsoft’s layoffs arrived a year to the day that it announced its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The purchase is valued at £50billion, however it faces increasing scrutiny from regulators across the globe.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Microsoft is “likely” to receive an EU antitrust warning due to objections over the acquisition. Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has already announced that it intends to prevent the acquisition.

Here in the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) continues to investigate the case, yet has delayed the publication of its findings due to the “scope and complexity” of the purchase.

In other gaming news, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has apologised for how one of his internal emails was “perceived”, after reportedly telling employees “the ball is in [their] court” to turn around Ubisoft’s recent financial difficulties.