Halo 4 Creative Director Ryan Payton Leaves 343 Industries

Ryan Payton, one of the creative directors on 343 Industries' upcoming Halo 4, has left the company after finding that he wasn't "creatively excited" about the title anymore. Payton has worked at the Microsoft subsidiary for three years, and had previously held an assistant producer role at publisher Konami. "I had a great run at Microsoft," he explained to games blog Kotaku. "I don't regret one day of it. But after a few years, there came a point where I wasn't creatively excited about the project anymore." "The Halo I wanted to build was fundamentally different and I don't think I had built enough credibility to see such a crazy endeavor through," he continued. "For somebody who loves this industry as much as I do and knows how lucky I've been, I never thought I'd get to a point where I was so drained. That was when I knew I had to do something else." Payton has now started up his own studio Camouflaj, and confirmed that he is currently working on two unannounced titles. "Some people say I'm crazy," he noted, "but I want to make a game that one billion people play at once, and it's something that hits them harder than a great book or film." Halo 4 was announced at E3 earlier this year, and marks "the dawn of a new trilogy for Xbox 360," according to Microsoft's Don Mattrick. 343 Industries is also in the process of developing a remastered version of the original Halo title for Xbox, named Halo Anniversary. [UPDATE: A Microsoft rep responded to Payton's departure in a statement to Gamasutra: "343 Industries has assembled an all-star cast of talent working on Halo 4 under the design leadership of Studio and Halo 4 Creative Director, Josh Holmes. We're excited to tell the next story in the Halo universe with Halo 4 as the first game in the Reclaimer Trilogy." "Ryan Payton, who left earlier this summer, served as Narrative Designer on Halo 4 for 15 months. Armando Troisi was hired as the Halo 4 Narrative Director in March, having formerly served as the Lead Cinematic Designer on Mass Effect 2. Ryan has been a great friend and colleague during his tenure at 343 Industries and we appreciate his contributions to the team. We wish Ryan the best in his new game development venture."]