Bungie has confirmed Martin O’Donnell’s tweet that the company had fired their longtime composer. O’Donnell claims that they did so without cause.
Popularly known by his nickname Marty, O’Donnell had done work for TV, movies, and even radio jingles before getting into gaming, He is best known for both his sound design and voice talent casting on the Halo series, and up until now had been filling the same role for Bungie’s upcoming online multiplayer shooter, Destiny. Prior to these games, Marty’s game credit include Riven, Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator, Oni, and Myth II.
Marty’s work for Halo has received critical acclaim, including GDC Awards, as well as a Best Original Video Game Soundtrack from Rolling Stone. His Halo soundtracks have also been collected and published on disc.
Now, the interesting thing is that while Marty found his way into the gaming industry, he remains president and co-owner of TotalAudio. While he was working for Bungie on the Halo games, even moving to work in Bungie’s offices, TotalAudio exclusively did work for Bungie, but remained an independent entity.
So, this news may have raised alarms for some of you, but maybe you can at least take heart knowing that Marty will personally do OK for himself. We have yet to see if he will even keep working in gaming at all, but even if he doesn’t they will be fine.
More to the point, this highlights how uncertain the industry has become in recent years. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised to see even more high profile people leave their studios in the coming months and years of this console generation.
Image is from Destiny.
I'm saddened to say that Bungie's board of directors terminated me without cause on April 11, 2014.
— Marty O'Donnell (@MartyTheElder) April 16, 2014
