The co-creator of the Halo and Destiny franchises, Joseph Staten, now works at Netflix, where he will serve as creative director on a “brand new AAA multi-platform game and original IP,” he announced Monday. States announced his departure from Microsoftwhere he served as senior creative director and head of creative on Halo infinityearlier this month.
“In my work life, there’s nothing I love more than collaborating with others to build worlds full of iconic characters, deep mysteries and endless adventures,” Staten said in a tweet about his new role at Netflix. “So today I’m excited to announce that I’ve joined Netflix Games as Creative Director for a brand new AAA multi-platform game and original IP. Let’s go!”
The Staten hiring represents a significant investment from Netflix for its games division, which last month announced it had 16 games in development at its own game studios and 70 in development with outside partners. Netflix game studios include Night School Studio, Boss Fight Entertainment, Next Games, Moonloot, and Spry Fox.
“Our goal is to develop a broad portfolio of games – across genres and formats – because we believe that everyone can enjoy games if they discover the one (or several!) that suits them,” said Leanne Loombevice president of external games at Netflix, in March.
Staten was a longtime staffer at Bungie and Microsoft, serving as a creative lead “responsible for developing the story foundations of the Halo universe”, and writing “multiple seasons, serial stories, and extended fiction” for Destiny as a co-creative lead , according to his LinkedIn profile. In 2013, prior to the launch of the original Destination, Staten left Bungie after a 15-year career there to rejoin Microsoft and work with the Xbox Games Studios global publishing group. He joined Halo developer 343 Industries in 2020 to work on Halo infinity and ship that game on Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Netflix started gaming in 2021 and mainly focused on mobile games based on original IP address Stranger things. The streaming company has since acquired a number of mobile game exclusives, with titles like spiritfarer, Terra Zero, Immortality, PoinpyAnd Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge to mobile platforms as part of a regular Netflix subscription.
The company’s shift into gaming coincides with an increasing number of game adaptations for Netflix, including hits like the League of Legends spin-off Mysterious, The Cuphead Showand the anime Cyberpunk: Edge Runnersand upcoming projects based on BioShock, Dragon Age, Pokémon, and Tomb Raider.