Payton Definitely For Sure Working on Halo

Probably not a surprise to anyone that Edge Online has confirmed Ryan Payton--former assistant producer at Kojima Productions and one of the guys responsible for making Metal Gear Solid 4 awesome--is indeed on board at Microsoft Game Studios, working on an unannounced Halo project. This is consistent with a slew of recent rumors to that effect, although those rumors said Payton would attain the lofty career upgrade of "creative director." MGS (Microsoft, not Metal Gear) isn't saying yet what his role will be, or the nature of the project, though.

A number of other pretty high-profile devs were also confirmed to be boarding the Good Ship Halo, most of which were similarly rumored in the past. Gearbox tech wiz Corrine Yu and id Software artist Kenneth Scott are up in there, along with former Pseudo Interactive tech director David Wu. Lastly, everyone's favorite Bungie community liaison Frank O'Connor is also involved, although we kinda knew that already.

Microsoft throwing talented people at its most popular franchise! News at 11! All Microsoft would say about what specifically these people will be doing is "working on upcoming and existing Halo games." It sounds like some kind of elite strike team of make-Halo-games-good specialists. Now I'm picturing them in some kind of costumed, Justice League configuration. Let's just move on.

Thanks to Edge for this photo of Payton looking especially dapper in signature headgear.