ComposerMarty O’Donnellhas had an eventful journey through the video game industry. His journey may mostly be associated solely with Bungie, but that enough on its own. He grew with Bungie from theMythgames throughHalo’s outrageous success, joined Bungie’s independent effort to build theDestinyuniverse, and most recently founded a company now working on thecontroversialSix Days in Fallujahmilitary shooter. Yet after all that, it now seems O’Donnell may suddenly be ready to say goodbye to the video game industry.
In a Twitter message that took his followers by surprise, O’Donnell posted that, “I’m thinking about retiring from the games industry for good.” The tweet prompted a variety of speculation, ranging from questions aboutO’Donnell’s company Highwire Games, to worries about his health. Ultimately, O’Donnell deleted the tweet, though the reason why isn’t clear, either. It’s possible that O’Donnell reconsidered the statement or simply didn’t like the responses he was drawing.
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Regardless, before O’Donnell deleted the tweet, he managed to add several additional layers of controversy to the situation. He’d first go on to post that he may “be forced” to shut down his YouTube channel. This followed O’Donnell mentioning that fans who purchased some of his work fromGolemon Bandcamp would “help me pay my huge legal fees. Corporate bullying.” When pushed to elaborate, all O’Donnell added was, “Ask Pete Parsons,” referring toBungie’s CEO.
While O’Donnell didn’t explicitly state what he was referring to, the implied idea is that Bungie is currently in some type of lawsuit with O’Donnell. It’s public knowledge thatO’Donnell won a court case against Bungieregarding his removal from the company, a decision that rewarded him with a considerable amount of stock in the company. The case O’Donnell is currently hinting at isn’t clear, but could refer to the rights of some of his music since he mentions potentially having to shut down accounts where it’s available.
It’s possible that O’Donnell isn’t in a financial position to continue any ongoinglegal battles with Bungie. Or it’s possible that in order to support those legal battles, he’d have to divest himself from Highwire Games. Without clarification, nothing can be assumed. At the very least, O’Donnell has made clear that he’s current in a bad situation.
For the time being, the only tweet from O’Donnell that remains on his feed is the request for fans to purchaseGolem’s soundtrack in order to help with his legal bills. If there is a legal matter at hand, O’Donnell likely can’t speak about it publicly. That said, if it is a legal matter, the results are likely to become public eventually. For the time being,O’Donnellhas yet to retire.
