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Joseph Staten is an American writer best known for his work at video game studios Bungie, Microsoft Studios, and 343 Industries.
At Bungie, Staten served as director of cinematics for the studio's games, including the Halo series; he would write mission scripts and movie dialogue for the titles. He has also been involved in managing the expansion of the Halo franchise to other game studios and producers, including Peter Jackson's Wingnut Interactive. Though not a published author previously, Tor Books approached Staten to write the fifth novel in the Halo franchise, . Released in 2007, the novel reached #3 on The New York Times bestseller list in the first week of its release and received positive reviews. Staten rejoined Microsoft Studios as a member of the Microsoft Publishing team. Helping with the publishing of titles like Recore and Microsoft Flight Simulator. In 2018 he joined 343 industries as the creative director on Halo Infinite, and left the company in 2023 to become a creative director at Netflix. In October 2024, he and the rest of the employees of Netflix's southern California gaming studio were let go.
After being rejected for employment with the Central Intelligence Agency, Staten dropped the idea of entering the foreign service and instead helped his family at their winery in Sonoma Valley. He pursued a number of jobs before becoming a staff member at game development studio Bungie in 1998 after meeting some of the developers in online Myth matches.
Though previous Halo novels had been written by professional writers like Eric Nylund and William C. Dietz, publisher Tor Books chose Staten to write the fifth Halo novelization, . Editor Eric Raab noted in the book's press release that "who better to tell the tale" of humanity's encounter with the antagonistic alien Covenant than Staten, who had "intimate knowledge" of the series' story. The novel is an ensemble piece, with the action being narrated from both human and alien viewpoints; the work of Staten's favorite science-fiction authors helped teach him the importance of honing a "strong, consistent voice". Staten found that writing compelling action involved slowing things down, paradoxically the opposite of the fast-paced gameplay of a Halo title. He considered the book the perfect way to elaborate on the Halo story without stripping it down for a video game, and flesh out the character of Avery Johnson more than the games had allowed.
On release, Contact Harvest reached a top spot of #3 on the New York Times bestseller list, where it remained for four weeks. The novel also appeared on the USA Today bestsellers list at the same time. Reviewers noted that despite being an unproven writer, Staten had succeeded in crafting an excellent novel. The novel's success was considered to be evidence that games were breaking into the mainstream, and that the genre was becoming increasingly about the story.
After Contact Harvests release Staten played an important role in the development of offshoots to the Halo franchise. He traveled to New Zealand several times to work with Peter Jackson and Weta Workshop. Staten assisted with the fiction of Ensemble Studios title Halo Wars, and the now-postponed Halo film. In interviews, Staten has explained that the game's protagonist, the Master Chief, would serve as a supporting character rather than who the film would focus on. He worked on story development for the Halo 3 expansion, . Staten provided the voices for a number of characters as placeholder audio during the representational play testing of the game in December 2008. Staten was last working for Bungie as the writer and design director for Destiny. On September 24, 2013, Bungie announced that Staten had left the company to pursue new creative challenges.
On August 26, 2020, 343 Industries announced that Staten had joined the team as Campaign Project Lead for Halo Infinite. 343 Industries later announced that Joseph's role had changed to Head of Creative for Halo Infinite. Staten left 343 Industries for his former position within the publishing division for Xbox Game Studios in 2023, and announced he would be leaving Microsoft entirely later that year.
Staten joined a California studio at Netflix called Team Blue, where he became creative director on what was described as a "AAA multiplatform game and original IP." He and the rest of the studio's employees were laid off in October 2024.
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