Ryan Payton leaves 343

Ryan Payton, one of the creative developers, tasked with creating the Halo 4 plot (alongside franchise director Frank O'Connor), has announced he is going to be leaving 343.

In an interview with Kotaku, Payton discusses that he no longer felt the franchise inspired him, saying


"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."

"For somebody who loves this industry as much as I do and know how lucky I've been, I never thought I'd get to a point where I was so drained," said Payton. "That was when I knew I had to do something else."

According to Kotaku, Payton was diagnosed with severe depression, and for a while found it difficult to even get up to go to work each day.

Payton does make it quite clear that he holds no grude or malcontent with Microsoft, or 343.
Stating:

"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." 

Payton has high hopes. He is a man who has made creating video games his life, and he is devoted to making a game that will shock and amaze people more than any blockbuster movie, or bestselling book.

"Some people say I'm crazy, but I want to make a game that one billion people play at once, and it's something that hits them harder than a great book or film."

Payton has already started off in his endeavor, creating his own studio under the name Camoflouj, and has already begun the process of creating two new titles.

In this writers opinion, this spells shaky news for 343, but good news for gamers.
While it's not my place at this point to project on how sucessful Halo 4 will be or not, losing someone who appears to have huge ideas, grand hopes, and such a devotion to gamers, just feels like a huge loss to the franchise.

That being said, I think we can expect good things to come from the Camoflaj studio. With the vision Ryan Payton has, a path to greatness should fall into place under the force of such strong ideas. We at the O&E wish you the best of luck Mr. Ryan Payton.