'Halo,' 'Destiny' composer Marty O'Donnell wins lawsuit against Bungie

[TopWargamer]

Source 1: http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/04/halo-destiny-composer-marty-odonnell-wins-lawsuit-against/

Source 2: https://venturebeat.com/2015/09/04/ex-bungie-composer-marty-odonnell-wins-epic-legal-fight-with-former-bosses/

 

Let's recap for a second. On April 11th, 2014 Marty O' Donell, the man behind the music of Halo and Destiny, was fired from Bungie without cause. Bungie then chose not to pay for vacation time that Marty had not used unless he waived his equity interest. Of course, Marty sued Bungie. 

(If you want to know the complete, very long story, click on the Venture Beat article, which is source #2.)

 

Fast forward to September 4th, 2015 and Marty won the lawsuit. Bungie now has to pay $142,500 to Marty. In addition to this, Marty also gets to keep his "considerable" amount of stock in the company. Unfortunately though, Marty cannot publish any music from Destiny unless he gets Bungie permission, and let's be realistic, that's never going to happen. 

 

Seriously, good. I'm glad that Marty won the lawsuit. I use to love Bungie a lot, but they've changed too much - for the worse - over the last few years. Them firing Marty was the last straw for me. So to Bungie, HAH, that's what you get, and to Mr. Marty...

https://puu.sh/jwLhE/3d81992ae9.webm

[ozziestig]

I loved the music in the halo series.

Good on him.

[Entropy]

Good, glad he won. Don't know the full story, but as presented, he deserved the verdict.

[Pyromaniac225]

Halo music was amazing.

 

Bless his soul.

Musical genius.

[zacRupnow]

Unfortunately though, Marty cannot publish any music from Destiny unless he gets Bungie permission, and let's be realistic, that's never going to happen. 

He can't publish on his own, but the soundtrack is already out there.

 

If he wants to do it on his own then this is how...

How to publish the music: 

1. Buy it on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Destiny-Original-Soundtrack-McCartney-Salvatori/dp/B00NZCZ78A

2. Upload to a good torrent site

3. Seed

[Trik'Stari]

Good for him.

 

Those bastards at Bungie deserve to lose some serious cash, and not just for this.

 

#butthurt

[Misanthrope]

Good news, even better gif

*right click, save as...*

[Fred Castellum]

Good for him.

 

Those bastards at Bungie deserve to lose some serious cash, and not just for this.

 

#butthurt

Well they kinda of have already lost serious cash. I mean have you seen Destiny's dev to game sales profit margin?

[jarr456]

Well they kinda of have already lost serious cash. I mean have you seen Destiny's dev to game sales profit margin?

I heard it wasn't a very good game, but didn't still sell a lot?

[vetali]

I wonder why 343 hasn't tried to pick him up, unless they have and he doesn't want to work on more Halo. Always thought the Halo 4 soundtrack was really weak aside from maybe 2 tracks. 

[soaringchicken]

VICTORY

[TopWargamer]

I wonder why 343 hasn't tried to pick him up, unless they have and he doesn't want to work on more Halo. Always thought the Halo 4 soundtrack was really weak aside from maybe 2 tracks. 

Because Marty and some other people started their own game studio called Highwire Games.

Source: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2015-06-18-bungie-airtight-veterans-found-highwire-games

[vetali]

Because Marty and some other people started their own game studio called Highwire Games.

Source: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2015-06-18-bungie-airtight-veterans-found-highwire-games

I actually didn't know that... hope the best for them. Marty is awesome.

[6God]

Well they kinda of have already lost serious cash. I mean have you seen Destiny's dev to game sales profit margin?

You're not parroting that 500m price tag are you? That 500m wasn't one games budget, it was the entire franchise for the length of contract that Bungie signed.

A contract that is already yielding stupid money for Bungie and Activision. Hate the premise of the game, hate the decisions in the game, but don't hate the commercial success it has. It's a tent pole franchise now. It's shooting mechanics are honestly second to none, COD even could learn some things from just how "tight" the gunplay is.

Destiny isn't some fluke. It's the real deal. I don't like the grinding nature of the game but it's got legs and people who aren't from Reddit gaming who just hate the game seem to like it just fine.

On topic: of course Marty was going to win. You don't sack one of your companies early members (who many respected no less) and then try to blackmail him for the money he is owed. Whatever Marty did, whatever issues he had, was enough to get him blackballed at Bungie.

A huge loss? Who is to say. Like I said, while Destiny is straight fire and is popular, the game is made by a studio that is not who it was under MS and Halo. Not in terms of who stil works there, just the general attitude.

It's a little ironic that Bungie left MS because they wanted creative control and a respite from corporate control, only to go sign a deal with Activision. And a lot of their "we are the shit" attitude broke out around this time. I've always suspected that Microsoft actually kept Bungies executive team at bay, curbing their egos so to speak.

It says a lot when one of your own founders, the man who crafted your lore for Halo, leaves your company and goes back to Microsoft. Just doesn't sit right with me.

Marty going back to Halo would be amazing but it seems that Marty is done with that chapter of his life. He already crafted one of gamings most prolific soundtracks, he doesn't need to prove anything to anyone. I'm happy he landed on his feet and is back in the gaming sphere.

[TopWargamer]

You're not parroting that 500m price tag are you? That 500m wasn't one games budget, it was the entire franchise for the length of contract that Bungie signed.

Just to be clear, we don't know if the $500 million that Activision poured into Destiny was just for this game or for the entire franchise.

Source: https://www.polygon.com/2014/6/13/5807752/destiny-500-million-budget-activision-bungie

 

The other thing to remember is that it’s unclear if the $500 million number is just for launching this game, called Destiny, or the franchise that Destiny will become. Bungie has told me in the past that the company spent six years creating the tools that they’re now using to create the game, not to mention the engine Destiny runs on.

 

That’s a massive upfront investment that will make the creation of post-launch content and sequels much less expensive than the first game. If Destiny is a hit, and spawns successful sequels, the cost to bring those sequels to market will be greatly diminished by the initial investment in infrastructure and proprietary tools to create content.

 

$500 million is a huge sum for a single game, but it’s merely an impressive number when you look at the possibility of three or more games stretched across the ten-year deal that Activision signed with Bungie. We don’t know what that budget means, how it’s broken down, or if the other games will require other discrete investments from Activision once Bungie has shipped, but the conversation around the number and what it means is deeply flawed.

[EChondo]

Good. I used to love Bungie as well, but most of the good employees I've known moved to 343, which has left the others with crap management.

 

Sucks that it has come to this, but I couldn't see it going any other way.

[Serin]

Huge fan of Marty's music, and a huge fan of companies not screwing over artists who've contributed more than their fair share to the success of a thing.
Great news! I'd love to hear his work in further Halo media even if the theme has moved on his he wrote for it. Probably some kind of non-compete though. 

[Toddwjp]

Good. I used to love Bungie as well, but most of the good employees I've known moved to 343, which has left the others with crap management.

 

Sucks that it has come to this, but I couldn't see it going any other way.

 

i believe the key thing that changed this was the activision take over,  bungie probably wasn't business enough so they probably got a few mangers in from else where to straighten them out. into a proper money churning machine.

[TopWargamer]

i believe the key thing that changed this was the activision take over,  bungie probably wasn't business enough so they probably got a few mangers in from else where to straighten them out. into a proper money churning machine.

If we're being technical here, Activision technically doesn't own Bungie. They are just in a contractual agreement for 10 years (or something like that) and during that time Bungie will make 3 Destiny games with expansions in between each game.

[Toddwjp]

If we're being technical here, Activision technically doesn't own Bungie. They are just in a contractual agreement for 10 years (or something like that) and during that time Bungie will make 3 Destiny games with expansions in between each game.

 

yeah but i would be very surprised if as part of that contract Bungie doesn't have to have alot of oversight and meddling by AV. A 10 Year contract isnt going to be left to the studio. 

[Tygron]

He can't publish on his own, but the soundtrack is already out there.

 

If he wants to do it on his own then this is how...

How to publish the music: 

1. Buy it on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Destiny-Original-Soundtrack-McCartney-Salvatori/dp/B00NZCZ78A

2. Upload to a good torrent site

3. Seed

Pretty sure he already has higher quality files than the CD's will ever have. But unless he was doing it as a "haha fuck you" (which wouldn't really make sense because i'm sure it's already all over torrent sites) he'd be wanting to sell it to make money. And that he can't legally do without Bungie's permission.

[zacRupnow]

he'd be wanting to sell it to make money. And that he can't legally do without Bungie's permission.

Thing is He's not the only composer of the tracks, unless they each wrote a few songs on their own rather than collaborating. In which case the pieces he wrote should not be sold by him, he created them on contract, and he can take a paycheck along with composition credit but the money he gets can only be dictated by the contract.

[Bouzoo]

140k eh? I thought he'd get more. Well a victory is victory.

[VerticalDiscussions]

Well Bungie has became like most other companies... (They make things for the money and globalization and no longer for the uniqueness or presentation)... and they fire critical employees who to them in the past where like the Golden Key. Why couldnt Martin just join 343 Industries he would be able to continue working on his best musical history. Eh he should have gotten 20% of the company money lol... but that would never happen.