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[Foffy]

Interesting stuff. Seems a lot of critics towards Bungie has been verified in this type of case.

 

[Frog-fu]

Whether you are on moral high ground or not, if you're divisive to your team, you're a problem. It sounds like Marty was causing hundreds of people stress and literally trying to hold Destiny and the company hostage to uphold his beliefs. And hey, his beliefs may be great but if you're acting like that, you're a problem and you need to be dealt with. Bungie did just that and moved forward one way or another.

I will also say that Marty's negative and demeaning political tweets are/were extremely annoying and arrogant. I could see him acting like a prima dona within Bungie, easily.

He makes great music. I hope his new endeavor works out. I just hope he sticks to that and keeps a low profile.

Marty wasn't just any employee, he was a high ranking founding member had been with the company since before it was even called Bungie and he knew its brass for years and years. I'd say he was entitled to being a little divisive when they allowed a third party to change their corporate culture and undermine his creative process.

But, fair enough, they fired him for not toeing the line, it didn't make them particularly good friends for doing so, but that was their prerogative and business is business. What was shitty about it was the fact they tried to screw him out shares that were rightfully his and pay he was due.

Divisive or not, there is no justification for such greed and fuckery. So, again, good for Marty.

 

[StUnNeR H2K]

While Destiny was planned for a September 2013 release, the story was substantially revised in August 2013.

Isn't this around the same time Joesph Staten left?

Guess I'd leave to if all that story effort was tossed in the can...

 

[down 2 orth]

A lot of folks here didn't want to recognize it, but now there's solid proof that Activision was actively influencing creative development of the game. What I want to know is whether or not they were responsible for fucking the story as well.

 

[Pooya]

Isn't this around the same time Joesph Staten left?

Guess I'd leave to if all that story effort was tossed in the can...

He left in September, yup.

 

[TheBryanJZX90]

A lot of folks here didn't want to recognize it, but now there's solid proof that Activation was actively controlling creative development in the game. What I want to know is whether or not they were responsible for fucking the story as well.

That's a preeeeeeety big leap from "chose a song in the trailer" to "controlling creative development"

 

[Frog-fu]

Isn't this around the same time Joesph Staten left?

Guess I'd leave to if all that story effort was tossed in the can...

Yeah. He's s Creative Director at Microsoft now if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Nowise10]

That's a preeeeeeety big leap from "chose a song in the trailer" to "controlling creative development"

Pretty sure they made the trailer too, not just the music.

 

[XenoRaven]

Doesn't seem like anyone's hands are clean here, but you can't withhold benefits from your employees. That's shitty and I'm glad he won.

 

[diaspora]

Pretty sure they made the trailer too, not just the music.

The trailer, the marketing piece?

 

[down 2 orth]

That's a preeeeeeety big leap from "chose a song in the trailer" to "controlling creative development"

Yeah I just noticed that. Will change my wording.

 

[Kagoshima_Luke]

Whether you are on moral high ground or not, if you're divisive to your team, you're a problem. It sounds like Marty was causing hundreds of people stress and literally trying to hold Destiny and the company hostage to uphold his beliefs. And hey, his beliefs may be great but if you're acting like that, you're a problem and you need to be dealt with. Bungie did just that and moved forward one way or another.

I will also say that Marty's negative and demeaning political tweets are/were extremely annoying and arrogant. I could see him acting like a prima dona within Bungie, easily.

He makes great music. I hope his new endeavor works out. I just hope he sticks to that and keeps a low profile.

lol

You make it sound like Bungie tactfully did what they had to because Marty was a bad apple. Did you forget the part where they withheld paying legally owed sums or stocks they had issued? I don't care if Marty was running naked through the offices shouting "Mini Marty is coming to party!", Bungie done fucked up.

 

[SephLuis]

That's a preeeeeeety big leap from "chose a song in the trailer" to "controlling creative development"

Where there's smoke....

It wouldn't be long before they started to change other things. And I bet they did.
I don't think Bungie would make an entire story and just cancel it by itself.

 

[The Flash]

Yeah. He's s Creative Director at Microsoft now if I'm not mistaken.

Yep, and he's writing more Halo

 

[XenoRaven]

lol

You make it sound like Bungie tactfully did what they had to because Marty was a bad apple. Did you forget the part where they withheld paying legally owed sums or stocks they had issued? I don't care if Marty was running naked through the offices shouting "Mini Marty is coming to party!", Bungie done fucked up.

Seriously though let's start this rumor.

 

[solaaire]

Quick question from someone who hasn't played Destiny, is it known how much of "Music of the Spheres" made it into the actual game?

 

[ElRenoRaven]

Sounds like all parties were shitheads in this. Sounds like Marty got a big head and became a bit arrogant. Then from there it went to hell. Sounds like Bungie overreacted to try and bring him down to earth and well from there things just kept escalating. Just sad to read all around.

 

[katsubento]

I wouldn't say that this legal battle was "epic".

 

[Steel]

While Destiny was planned for a September 2013 release, the story was substantially revised in August 2013. That pushed the release date back to March 2014. O’Donnell returned to work after a vacation, but the audio team and his supervisor did not consider him to be fully engaged in his work. The release date of the game, meanwhile, pushed back to September 2014. Bungie set in motion a process to terminate O’Donnell.

So, Destiny's story was completely revised 12 months before release? And how many of those months were spent packing?

I'm honestly not surprised though.

 

[Twilight Gap]

That's a preeeeeeety big leap from "chose a song in the trailer" to "controlling creative development"

If that was literally all that happened, then yea Marty's reaction would have been childish. Even so, to have the game's first public showing be changed just like that would be upsetting. And it sounds like that isn't' the only thing they were meddling with at that point.

Jason Jones made a quote about Activision in one of their ViDocs. Paraphrasing: "give us the tools that we need to make a game and stay the hell out of our way."

Shame that didn't happen.

It might be in their Brave New World ViDoc from several years ago. It's an hour long: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vTDwW3H5Jw

 

[Deleted member 465307]

On April 16, 2010, Bungie and Activision Publishing agreed to make a five-part video game franchise dubbed Destiny.

This may be slightly off-topic, but does anyone know how The Taken King is being considered? Is that the second part of the five or do they have four more games that they need to release?

 

[WickedLaharl]

I remember the concerns voiced by bungie fans over getting in bed with activision and how bungie employees downplayed concerns. Now i am totally shocked that they rolled over for their new employer after taking "the freedom road".

 

[SephLuis]

This may be slightly off-topic, but does anyone know how The Taken King is being considered? Is that the second part of the five or do they have four more games that they need to release?

Ther part had written: three games and big expansions.

I think TTK would be one of the big expansions.

 

[BokehKing]

Wow, Bungie/Activision look pretty unflattering in this article.

Marty doesn't look too good either, at least imo it sounds like he wasn't getting his way and got pissy about it. Different house new rules, you got to adapt and play the game.

 

[ElRenoRaven]

This may be slightly off-topic, but does anyone know how The Taken King is being considered? Is that the second part of the five or do they have four more games that they need to release?

Judging by the original EA/Activision lawsuit TTK would be comet 1. The deal was to go like this. Course who knows how everything changed with the delays and other stuff.

Destiny
Various DLC
Comet 1
Various DLC
Destiny 2
Various DLC
Comet 2
Various DLC
etc
etc.

 

[mcrommert]

Just as I thought marty was trying to save the soul of bungie

 

[R0ckman]

No matter what we think of Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo, nobody can transform a developer we know and love to a villain like Activision and EA can apparently (Bioware and now Bungie). Although I still love Bioware. :-/

Why is this Batman quote becoming more and more true? "You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain"

It's a "can't beat them join them" thing. Wicked people are typically more agressive than justful people, the media also twists good to be this kind of passive submissive trait, if you become a bold lion and stand up for injustice you are usually painted wrongfully or viewed as more tyranous than an evil person who causes trouble covertly.

There are a lot of cartoons that play this theme. Person becomes a bully hunter due to his sense of justice, goes "out of control with power", bully hunter "learns lesson", things go back to letting bullies run wild, essitially telling kids that being passive to subtle corruption is better than strictly fighting against it. But it of you don't fight against it it becomes systematic and it spreads. Thus, the hero becomes the villain.

 

[Twilight Gap]

Quick question from someone who hasn't played Destiny, is it known how much of "Music of the Spheres" made it into the actual game?

There are only excerpts in the full game.

This was posted in June 2014

 

[Nowise10]

The trailer, the marketing piece?

The E3 2013 trailer the seemed to start the predicament with Marty. Pretty sure he tweeted out saying that the Trailer wasn't even made by Bungie, but by the people you made Call of Duty. I think they just tossed Marty's music after it was made?

 

[Pappasman]

Tbh O'Donnell looks worse here. Sounds like both sides were shitty.

 

[BokehKing]

This may be slightly off-topic, but does anyone know how The Taken King is being considered? Is that the second part of the five or do they have four more games that they need to release?

Nah, I don't see us getting 'destiny 2' until this time next year, when the ps3 and 360 is dead.

It's hard to tell, people will argue 'taken king is what we should have gotten last year' end of the day, it's a lot of changes, and they were never going to give you vault, Crotas End and Kings fall right off the bat with out charging you anyway with Marty there or not

 

[Reveirg]

That's a pretty bullshit statement right there.

How's that?

 

[Vire]

The fact that Marty essentially quit on the audio team after not getting his way is really poor form.

If you actually read through the article, it paints Marty in a worse light in my opinion.

 

[Twilight Gap]

I thought the original Destiny contract said 4 games.

Destiny 2013
Comet Expansion 2014
Destiny 2 2015
Comet Expansion 2 2016
Destiny 3 2017
Comet Expansion 3 2018
Destiny 4 2019
Comet Expansion 2 2020

And then a year was added to that after it was delayed.

 

[NastyBook]

LOL They made a deal with the Devil and shit got hot. Dunno what they expected. Glad Marty got his money, though. They were clearly out to get him. Pretty disgusting behavior towards a man who had a heavy hand in the company's unbridled success.

 

[Gaogaogao]

nice

 

[ElRenoRaven]

Tbh O'Donnell looks worse here. Sounds like both sides were shitty.

The fact that Marty essentially quit on the audio team after not getting his way is really poor form.

If you actually read through the article, it paints Marty in a worse light in my opinion.

I agree with both of you. He really does to be honest. The findings really seem to be more damaging to him in spite of the finding for him. I know if I was an employer and an employee was more concerned with releasing their music instead of focusing on the game I'd be a bit put off. Then it says he interrupted briefings and threatened other employees. At that point I'd probably be looking into reprimanding him too. Then he takes time off comes back and from the looks of it wasn't really doing his work. To me that doesn't sound like someone I'd want working for me to be honest.

Now Bungie were no angels either in all this. They shouldn't have tried to take his stock no doubt. So yea while they look bad I think he looks the worst to be honest.

 

[Steverulez]

Yep, and he's writing more Halo

Im pretty sure he's not. 343 have their own staff for that, I think Joe is on their partner studio projects.

I doubt he would given the topic but perhaps Frankie could clarify that

 

[wwm0nkey]

What I'm getting here is that all sides pulled some shit

 

[The Flash]

Im pretty sure he's not. 343 have their own staff for that, I think Joe is on their partner studio projects.

I doubt he would given the topic but perhaps Frankie could clarify that

should've put fiction at the end. He's writing a new Halo novella.

 

[Twilight Gap]

I agree with both of you. He really does to be honest. The findings really seem to be more damaging to him in spite of the finding for him. I know if I was an employer and an employee was more concerned with releasing their music instead of focusing on the game I'd be a bit put off. Then it says he interrupted briefings and threatened other employees. At that point I'd probably be looking into reprimanding him too. Then he takes time off comes back and from the looks of it wasn't really doing his work. To me that doesn't sound like someone I'd want working for me to be honest.

Now Bungie were no angels either in all this. They shouldn't have tried to take his stock no doubt. So yea while they look bad I think he looks the worst to be honest.

It looks like he underestimated how safe he was in his position, which was certainly unique but didn't give him free reign to do whatever he wanted.

It's hard to blame anyone at this point since they all fucked up, but if I had to pin a photo on the wall I'd say Bungie made a mistake signing with Activision, or at least for not including scenarios like this in the contract.

 

[JaggedSac]

I think the issue they had with MS was they couldn't do anything but Halo, and they would never own anything. So they got what they wanted, their own game, that they own. However they're still under some sway from Activision. We will see if Bungie made the right decision in the long run.

MS let them make something other than Halo. Bungie fucked it up though, and it ended up affecting Halo 2.

 

[Armadilo]

So Destiny 2 is going to come out in 2016 ?

 

[reptilescorpio]

During E3 2013 preparations, Bungie was getting ready to demo the game for the first time before a huge audience at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the biggest U.S. video game show. Activision was going to play the game music with a trailer, but shortly before E3, Activision took over the trailer work and supplied its own music, rather than the Music of the Spheres segments.

O’Donnell reacted angrily and believed Activision had overstepped its proper role by assuming artistic control of the trailer music. Ryan, the CEO of Bungie, and management shared his concern and filed a “veto” letter with Activision, which overruled the objection. During E3, O’Donnell tweeted that Activision, not Bungie, had composed the trailer music. He also threatened Bungie employees in an attempt to keep the trailer from being posted online, and interrupted press briefings.

Whoa, what a mess.

 

[Twilight Gap]

So Destiny 2 is going to come out in 2016 ?

If another one of their cornerstone employees doesn't get fired, most likely.

 

[SmartWaffles]

Im pretty sure he's not. 343 have their own staff for that, I think Joe is on their partner studio projects.

I doubt he would given the topic but perhaps Frankie could clarify that

Joe Staten's new Halo novella Shadow of Intent is releasing on December 7, 2015. He is the Creative Director of Microsoft Studios though so he isn't working exclusively on Halo.

 

[JaseC]

Did nobody honestly see it turning out any other way.

"Bungie retains ownership of the IP" translated to "Bungie retains creative freedom" for a lot of people. As these details show, however, the party that is funding a project will always wiggle its way into proceedings. It is the one putting money on the line, after all.

 

[R0ckman]

So Destiny 2 is going to come out in 2016 ?

Do they even have a choice if the contract locks them into a 2016 sequal?

 

[SenjutsuSage]

And people were implying that Microsoft were the bad guys.

http://venturebeat.com/2015/09/04/e...ell-wins-epic-legal-fight-with-former-bosses/

A very interesting and insightful story. Was a great read.

 

[R0ckman]

I just want to say I find it interesting that this skeleton escapes the closet right before TTK releases.