Microsoft's Phil Spencer has confirmed to Gamasutra the addition of Kojima Productions' Ryan Payton and Pseudo Interactive's David Wu, alongside a number of other major hires, to "develop new and exciting projects within the
Halo universe" and help support Bungie & Ensemble projects.
Payton, who
left the Metal Gear Solid 4 creator in late August to work closer to his family in North America, had been reported to have joined MGS shortly after his Konami departure.
In addition to Bungie's Frank O'Connor, who also joined MGS to work on the
Halo universe, some of the most important hires also mentioned in the statement are technical ones.
In particular, industry programming veteran (and most recently at Gearbox) Corrinne Yu has joined and is now Principal Engine Programmer at 'Halo Franchise Team', according to her LinkedIn profile.
And low-profile but extremely influential coder David Wu, most recently at Pseudo Interactive, is also now working at Microsoft Game Studios, alongside former id art director Kenneth Scott.
The full comment from Phil Spencer, who heads all first-party development and publishing efforts worldwide at Microsoft Game Studios, is as follows:
"Microsoft has confirmed the addition of Ryan Payton, formerly of Kojima Productions to Microsoft Game Studios.
"Payton joins a group of industry heavy hitters to recently arrive at Microsoft Game Studios, including Corrinne Yu from Gearbox and Kenneth Scott of id Software, as well as David Wu from Pseudo Interactive and Frank O’Connor, a Bungie veteran.
"Microsoft Game Studios is thrilled to have such talented people working to develop new and exciting projects within the
Halo universe and supporting existing projects from studios like Bungie and Ensemble."
