Bungie alum Joseph Staten (pictured) has been hired to work on the upcoming Halo Infinite.

In a blog post on the franchise's website, developer 343 Industries revealed that the Microsoft senior creative director has been brought on as the project lead for Halo Infinite's campaign. At Bungie, he was the writer for the original Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo Reach as well as a creative consultant for the strategy title Halo Wars, and the writer and creative director for Halo 3: ODST.

He worked at the studio when it was spun out of Microsoft and was a writer and co-creative director for Destiny between 2009 and 2013. Since 2014 he has been senior creative director at Microsoft, contributing to games including ReCore and Tell Me Why. Taking to Twitter, Staten said he was "thrilled" to join the Halo Infinite team.

Meanwhile, the head of 343's publishing team Pierre Hintze has been brought on to the free-to-play experience for Halo Infinite.

This follows Microsoft pushing the game back from its initial release this year until 2021 due to remote working thanks to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic slowing down work.