GOONL!NE

MGS have announced to Kotaku that Ryan Payton will be coming to them.

No, not Metal Gear Solid, Microsoft Games Studios.

Payton (for anyone who doesn’t know, he’s the one in the glassses behind, from left, Aki Sato, his old boss Hideo Kojima, Patrice Dessiet and Jade Raymond of Ubisoft), left Kojima Productions after the release of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots due to family issues and came back to the United States to get a post in the industry closer to his family but it seems he’s got one.

Microsoft Games Studios confirmed to Kotaku that Payton has indeed joined the MGS team to work on future Halo projects.

Also joining Payton is Corrinne Yu formally of Gearbox Studios (The studio behind Brothers in Arms and also behind Halo 4 apparently), her husband Kenneth Scott, formally of id Software (Quake, Doom) and of course, to make those future Halo projects that taste saweet, they have also brought in former Bungie alumni, Frankie O’Connor.

All of them above will be on the Halo IP as Microsoft now own the rights to the Halo IP due to the fact that Bungie became a indie studio again a year on Sunday and while MGS didnt say what their positions will be, Payton is rumored to be creative director on Peter Jackson’s Halo Project, Halo Chronicles.

It also comes as, according to Edge, Microsoft are prepared to have a big announcement by Bungie at the keynote of Head of Xbox Live, John Schappert at the Tokyo Games Show next Thursday. What this announcement maybe, it’s mot likely to do with the Halo 3 expansion they announced just last week.

TGS just got that bit interesting.

It’s Official, MGS4 Producer Now Working on Halo [Kotaku]
MGS4’s Payton Joins Microsoft Halo Crew [Edge]