After a moderately lengthy legal battle, Martin O’Donnell – the revered and respected composer for several of Bungie’s series’ including Halo & Destiny – has won his case against his former employers. O’Donnell was fired by Bungie in April 2014 for then unknown reasons, which are now believed to involve a dispute over the use of the Destiny soundtrack.
O’Donnell has been awarded $142,500 as part of a profit-sharing scheme he was entitled to, plus $95,000 relating to unpaid wages. More significantly, Bungie have also been ordered to honour his right to a “substantial” amount of shares in the company.
It is alleged that the original dispute started after O’Donnell became frustrated at his lack of control over the use of the “Music of the Spheres” – his grand musical suite encompassing eight movements, composed for the entirety of the Destiny series. At the time, Bungie was working on the E3 announcement trailer for the upcoming game, but work was handed over at the request of Activision – the game’s publisher. It is then that Activision allegedly changed the trailer’s music from O’Donnell’s work to a different, apparently externally sourced piece. Infuriated, O’Donnell complained to fellow employees and increased existing requests for the game’s soundtrack to be released as a standalone work, as most of his previous work on the Halo series had been. Activision refused, and Bungie would not support O’Donnell’s position, causing a rift. What happened next is not clear, but it is alleged that O’Donnell attempted to rally support against Activision’s interference, claiming they were negatively affecting Bungie’s “spirit”. This then resulted in him being terminated and posting the following tweet.
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
Arguably O’Donnell’s most iconic work was for Halo 3 – composed alongside Michael Salvatori – some of which you can listen to below.
Source: Martin O’Donnell versus Bungie and Harold Ryan
Dean was a regular ICXM contributor between 2015–2017, publishing 39 articles across game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news. Their work focused on hands-on reviews, platform commentary, and breaking-news reporting during the Xbox One X launch year and Microsoft’s wider Play Anywhere / UWP gaming initiative. They post on X as @SpookyWomble.