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Marty O'Donnell Fired By Bungie

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Already jumping to conclusions and forming weird conspiracy theories...didn't we learn anything from the last month?
Well, Amy Hennig and the others all left on their own. Marty is specifying that he was terminated.
 

Daigoro

Member
Half the reason you play all games is the music?
a bit of hyperbole sure, but Marty's music was a huge part of the halo games for a lot of people, myself included. I'm sure you agree.

the halo score is iconic. this is a hell of a loss.
 

Tomat

Wanna hear a good joke? Waste your time helping me! LOL!
Until someone can give us a real, solid reason as to why he was let go, this is not okay.
 

Yagharek

Member
Holy shit!! I have my problems with Halo, especially Halo 4, but never was it because of the music. Those soundtracks are amazing.

Yep. Music was the one element of Halo which was consistently great across the whole series (1-Reach). O'Donnell was the last person I'd expect to be fired from bungie.
 
I think Marty is a total douche lord for using his influence to spread anti-abortion rhetoric on Twitter.

My face when he was fired before he could finish Destiny soundtrack.

Q1n2T.gif
 
Mr O'Donnell will probably land on his feet pretty quickly, but as for Bungie, their decisions to let go key personnel should not be taken lightly or haphazardly. Destiny will not be a guaranteed success, Board of Directors.
 

Quasar

Member
I attended a presentation he gave at Bungie just a few months ago where he showed us a video of him working with Paul McCartney and let us listen to some new stuff from Destiny. It gave me chills, there's no way he's fired.

Well you'd think with only a few months to go his work would be mostly done.
 
Wasn't he writing some music with Paul McCartney for Destiny? I wonder if that wasn't working out so well, or something.

I would imagine the soundtrack is probably done at this point.

But it will be interesting to see who will replace on Comet and Destiny 2.
 

Gestault

Member
That's almost unbelievable, if the Tweet is taken at face value. I have trouble imagining how that could come to be, given his work history and record of quality output. On the plus side, I can't imagine him having much difficulty finding a position after-the-fact, disruption aside.
 

GrizzNKev

Banned
Well you'd think with only a few months to go his work would be mostly done.

Well yeah, but Destiny isn't a game, it's a 10 year franchise. Marty was one of the original Bungie employees and a strong influence on the direction of the company. This isn't some light decision.
 

BigBoss

Member
Honestly can't believe this. I just don't see what could've happened that would make them fire him, and give him no reason.


Shock.

Whoaaaaaaa. I think Marty is a total douche lord for using his influence to spread anti-abortion rhetoric on Twitter, but at the same time, the man is a talented genius! God damn. I'll really miss his piece of that Bungie magic, no matter how much I think his politics suck.

.
 

WARP10CK

Banned
There is always two sides to everything but it's a damn shame nonetheless he is a brilliant composer and I am not the biggest Halo fan around, but the music he composed is really good.
 

akaoni

Banned
Not a fan of Halo but when I did play them the OST was possibly the best aspect for me, even for a game in general. I'm interested to know what happened.
 
Whoaaaaaaa. I think Marty is a total douche lord for using his influence to spread anti-abortion rhetoric on Twitter, but at the same time, the man is a talented genius! God damn. I'll really miss his piece of that Bungie magic, no matter how much I think his politics suck.
Seriously? :(
I love his music, but if this it true. :/
 
Well, the music in the Destiny trailers had been underwhelming so far, but I doubt I'm in the majority thinking that, or if that'd be cause for being fired.

I do remember it being a staple of every single Halo making-of (or at least, the ones I saw) making light of how he was very different politically from the majority of the company and was a bit of a firebrand. Wonder if that could've had anything to do with it.

The word he used was terminated. The title is a bit misleading as fired implies he did something wrong.

"Terminated without cause" is firing. WA has at-will employment.
 
a bit of hyperbole sure, but Marty's music was a huge part of the halo games for a lot of people, myself included. I'm sure you agree.

the halo score is iconic. this is a hell of a loss.
The soundtrack is pretty important, yeah, but half the reason you're excited for the game? I've never seen that before. I find it kind of weird.

We don't know why he was fired or if the soundtrack was completed, anyhow.
 
K

kittens

Unconfirmed Member
Is that true? If so, any sympathy goes right out the window : /
Yeah, it was just one time as far as I know, but I definitely lost some respect for him. As anyone from HaloGAF could probably tell you, I take my politics seriously, but even I'm super bummed Bungie made him go. :-(
 

Ominym

Banned
Holy shit, what a loss.

I know it's presumptuous, probably unjustly so, but I wonder if it has anything to do with his political views? He's pretty conservative from what I remember.
 

GrizzNKev

Banned
Yeah, it was just one time as far as I know, but I definitely lost some respect for him. As anyone from HaloGAF could probably tell you, I take my politics seriously, but even I'm super bummed Bungie made him go. :-(

Yeah, I separate his work from his opinions. It's not like he's a politician. Regardless of what happens in his brain, his work is why I'm now being educated in video game audio. My dream was to work under him at Bungie. Now? I don't know that to do...
 
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