Halo 4 Seeks New Creative Director

Halo 4 seeks a new creative director after the departure of Ryan Payton.

While Microsoft’s showing at E3 this past year was abysmal to say the least, the announcement of overblown sequel Halo 4, which is far from the forth installment of the series if we’re counting cash cow spin-offs and prequels.

That’s why I was happy to hear that creative director of Halo 4 Ryan Payton has left 343 Industries, the subsidy that Microsoft acquired specifically to work on games that involve the Halo IP. Payton, who previously worked with Konami on Metal Gear Solid 4 spoke to IGN about his departure and called the entire project a “crazy endeavor.”

In his interview with IGN, Payton said the following:

“I had a great run at Microsoft. 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.

I think time is the most valuable thing we have and I’ve decided that I’m not going to waste one more day working on something that doesn’t speak to my values.”

This viewpoint makes a lot of sense, given that the franchise has been beaten to death nearly as hard as Activision’s two main franchises, those being the Call of Duty and now defunct Guitar Hero franchises. Unfortunately, this may leave the Halo 4 project in dire straights for those millions out there that think Master Chief should have lived, but I for one, thought his story has concluded long ago.

Now if only all of us could walk away from stagnant opportunity and stick true to our values…then world would have a lot less sequels.

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