Joseph Staten is a writer and creative director who worked on DESTINY and the HALO series at Bungie Studios. He has been involved in managing the expansion of the HALO franchise to other game studios and producers, including Peter Jackson's Wingnut Interactive. He wrote the write the fifth HALO novelization, called HALO: CONTACT HARVEST, which was published in 2007. Staten re-joined Microsoft Studios as a senior creative director in 2014.