Xbox Marty O'Donnell Fired From Bungie

[Andre]

According to this tweet from Marty O'Donnell, he was just fired without cause by Bungie's Board of Directors as of April 11. Marty is the prolific composer of the Halo series and was leading the soundtrack of Destiny, Bungie's latest. No details are out yet on why he was terminated, but this is really sad, he's clearly one of the most talented composers out there.

Thoughts?

[qwertykins76]

I don't recall Halo music being that memorable, but then I only played Reach. I remember it being well orchestrated, though.

[Andre]

Originally Posted by qwertyo76

I don't recall Halo music being that memorable, but then I only played Reach. I remember it being well orchestrated, though.

Wut? Halo 1 theme song is one of the most memorable video game songs of the decade.

[qwertykins76]

Originally Posted by Andre

Wut? Halo 1 theme song is one of the most memorable video game songs of the decade.

Oh good that's what that was. Yeah I was gonna say that's the only one that stuck with me but I couldn't recall what it was exactly.

I just realized where I remember it from though. It plays in Reach during a Scorpion mission which is how I remember it by. But yea otherwise I don't remember any specific tunes.

[Turd Ferguson]

Halo music is like the video game version of Star Wars music

Marty was awesome and Bungie will definitely suffer losing him

edit: This is one of my favorite video game musics of all time

[Breegullbeak]

I'm curious as to the why. IGN said he was terminated without cause, but I doubt they would do this for no reason.

Whaaaaaaat. This is so sad.

[CaptainDredlokk]

I was beyond sad to read about this. Hearing Marty's beautifuls tunes in a game made the game all the more spectacular. One of the few games where every time a particular menu song comes on I stop to listen all the way through, the composing was done by Marty and Mike. It's sad to hear such a talented musician has left such a talented company.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoHCpa4rG7I

[Madous]

There seems to be two sides to this story. Bungie is saying something totally different.

[CaptainDredlokk]

Idk, it seems odd for this to be handled so well on Bungie's side of the story, but for it to be a "termination without cause," unless it was really just handled well by both sides, which is a possibility. Whatever happened, it's sad to see him gone and I hope he gets back into the field soon. Link to his website. Nothing really up there right now, but at least he's moving forward.

[Madous]

I'm sure a man of his talent will have no issues finding work.

[Andre]

As his former employer, Bungie can't really say anything about the reasoning for his firing. If they were to explain publicly, they could be sued for restricting O'Donnell's future employment opportunities. At this point, we won't really know the full story until someone starts leaking, but that statement doesn't tell us anything yet.

[Madous]

Originally Posted by Andre

As his former employer, Bungie can't really say anything about the reasoning for his firing. If they were to explain publicly, they could be sued for restricting O'Donnell's future employment opportunities. At this point, we won't really know the full story until someone starts leaking, but that statement doesn't tell us anything yet.

It's the "as friends" line that confuses me the most. Bungie's post makes it seem like Marty left on his own accord and everything was totally fine, while Marty makes it seem like Bungie just said "Welp, you're done".

[CaptainDredlokk]

Could be the board fired him without cause, but he still could have been cared about greatly by the staff, including the man charged with actually writing the Goodbye article. Then again, this article was... 3 sentences. Not very heartfelt. Idk Bungie could be using the "goodbye friend" style as a method to make themselves seem less guilty/less about profit etc, making themselves look less negative for firing such a talented man for no cause. Both sides are open-ended enough that anything is possible really.