This is what really happened with Destiny

Under a final ruling issued today from a court-appointed arbitrator, Bungie must honor its agreements with O’Donnell that gave him the right to hold a considerable share of stock in the company. And the filing contains for the first time a description of the ordeal that O’Donnell went through as he quarreled with Bungie over issues of creative freedom and stock ownership in the company that he cofounded. The court papers reveal a rare, unseen story of the making of Destiny, and the internal struggles that happened between Activision, the publisher, and Bungie, the developer of the game that is now played by millions.

On April 16, 2010, Bungie and Activision Publishing agreed to make a five-part video game franchise dubbed Destiny. The original release date was set for Sept. 24, 2013 (it came out a year later in 2014). O’Donnell composed music for “every application” of the Destiny franchise.

Pete Parsons, chief operating officer of Bungie, asked O’Donnell to create all of the music for the entire Destiny franchise at the same time, rather than writing the themes one at a time for each of the game installments. O’Donnell composed a symphonic suite of eight movements, working with the legendary ex-Beatle Paul McCartney. O’Donnell recorded that music in early 2013. Dubbed the Music of the Spheres, the music will be used throughout the Destiny franchise. At least, that was the plan. O’Donnell also worked with the audio team on sound design, sound effects, and cinematics, among other things.

The court papers say that Activision had little enthusiasm for releasing the Music of the Spheres as a standalone work, and O’Donnell became increasingly frustrated that Bungie was making insufficient effort to release it. During E3 2013 preparations, Bungie was getting ready to demo the game for the first time before a huge audience at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the biggest U.S. video game show. Activision was going to play the game music with a trailer, but shortly before E3, Activision took over the trailer work and supplied its own music, rather than the Music of the Spheres segments.

The court filings say that O’Donnell believed he was preserving Bungie’s “creative process, artistic integrity, and reputation, keeping faith with fans, and protecting Bungie and its intellectual property from Activision’s encroachment into artistic decisions.” According to O’Donnell’s view, the “Band of Brothers” ethos that had inspired the group’s earlier work was being damaged by the Activision relationship.

While Destiny was planned for a September 2013 release, the story was substantially revised in August 2013. That pushed the release date back to March 2014. O’Donnell returned to work after a vacation, but the audio team and his supervisor did not consider him to be fully engaged in his work. The release date of the game, meanwhile, pushed back to September 2014. Bungie set in motion a process to terminate O’Donnell.

TL;DR- Activision interfered with the creative process, the creative people who were behind Bungie's brilliance left in the middle of the development cycle, the remaining husk tried to salvage everything they could, and released the game in that state.

Oh, and also, O'Donnell won his court case against Bungie and Activision.

SOURCE

Well, Bungie did it to themselves. They left Ms for more creative freedom and got even less

Yeah... Microsoft was fine letting Bungie be as long as they did Halo games.

Now, Bungie has Activision meddling in the creative process, and they are stuck doing just Destiny games.

I guess MS doesn't seem so bad now ehh Bungie.

Dat game budget tho.

I find this hilarious because it's Activision.

I mean, Microsoft even allowed Bungie multiple opportunities to launch new IP, Bungie just kept fucking them up and canceling their projects. I'm not sure exactly what they wanted from Microsoft:

• Creative freedom? They had that.
• Corporate independence? They had that.
• Financial stability? They had that.
• Development prestige? They had that.
• Owbership of IP? This they did not have.

Was that seriously worth all of this?

Surprised this wasn't settle behind a non-disclosure agreement.

Also, that TL;DR explanation just accounts for Bungie's composer. I've no reason to believe other figure heads were removed. Though, I certainly don't doubt Activision had a lot to do with cut content.

@charizard1605: I bet they are saying it wasn't worth it now. The grass isn't always greener.

Staten also left the company in September 2013. He was in charge of writing story and narrative for Bungie.

Oh, and by the way? 2013 is when the story of Bungie was reworked and the game delayed.

What was the final figure? Something in the billions?

Well Activision did some pretty messed up stuff with Infinity Ward so this isn't that surprising

$500 million

$500 million and they couldn't even put out a complete game...

How in the holy hell does this battle of the music of Destiny have anything to do with how void of content the game is?

The only part where it says anything about the story or lack there of is like a sentence long.

One could take away from this that Activision wants to control it's money making machine in advance...but who the hell didn't see that coming and didn't already know that.

@clyde46: why would they when people still bought it and played it religiously and constantly make excuses for it. Hell, that destiny dweeb from gamespot was on a video a while ago defending the $20 dlc pack that is only 1 new dance emote per race and 3 new colors for your armor. There are more finalstars out in the world than people with actual good taste.

@mr_huggles_dog: Mentions Activision overreached by changing trailer music, suggesting maybe they've overreached in other aspects?

Also the entire story was reworked the month before the expected release day, that's news to me. I'd say that's a huge contribution, especially since the guy in charge of the story writing left soon later.

Everything Bungie does is just so cynical. I wouldn't touch them with a ten-foot pole.

You skipped over the part where it says O'Donnel was acting like a huge dick at work though, threatening his coworkers and interrupting press briefings.

Should have come to sony - could make whatever game they wanted

@Zlurodirom: Thats what I said...but who didn't really think that Activision or any publisher for that matter (or most anyway) wouldn't take major control over what could possibly be a cash cow?

Like I said...theres one sentence talking of the story changes....all the music and sound business doesn't explain why they screwed up this game so bad regarding content.

It's more of an taste of what we already thought than a whole meal of something we've been waiting to hear.

Ahhh good old Activision.

I didn't care for Bungie when they were on Halo... I don't care for Bungie now that they are on Destiny. The Halo games are great and 343 is doing a great job with the series currently. and I hear good things about Destiny and plan on getting onto it with The Taken King - Legendary Edition... but Bungie makes things so difficult. I'm surprised they even can get anything done at all. I feel for Microsoft and Activision for putting up with their bullshit.

Activision has sucked for close to a decade under Kotick.

I always disliked hearing/reading that after gaining their creative freedom from M$, Bungie then signed up with those hacks at Activision. What was the point?

Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

@isturbo1984:

For the record, 343 hasn't even hit one 90+ metascore in their career, despite Bonnie Ross trying very hard to do what Bungie did multiple times (90+ metascores).

I do think new Acti-Bungie sucks, but I also am not a fan of 343's work on Halo either.

@SolidTy:

Yeah, i hear a lot of people keep saying 343 sucks, but i dont think so. The team is pretty much a group of the biggest Halo fans in existence. if the franchise was left to anyone, it would be them. and a lof of the staff from Bungie stayed behind with 343. I am very pleased with the way they have handled the franchise. Doesnt surprise me they havent his a 90 on metacritic... the only games they have put out so far have been remakes... Halo CE Anniversary and MCC with Halo 2 Anniversary. All of them being awesome, btw. Halo 5 will be the first new game in the Halo franchise by them. But scores aside, I think they have done the series some justice. Very pleased with them.

@clyde46: its a 500 milion budget over the ten year lifespan of the series not just on vanilla Destiny...

Still a lot of fucking money, though.

Thank the gaming gods.

@joel_c17: Why? Sony came to them and started acting as if Destiny were exclusive.

@SolidTy: 343i is a lot better than expanding the Halo universe than Bungie ever was.

Companies that have left Microsoft don't seem too impressive after and the studios that took over for their franchises are pretty lack luster. On the other hand Insomniac really made something amazing with Sunset Overdrive

I think they did actually have some ownership of the IP until they decided to leave MS, giving MS full ownership was part of the seperation deal was it not?.

But yeah, i can forgive Bungie for Destiny cock ups, but what they did to Marty is unforgivable, he was a large part of what made Halo and Bungie a huge success and they discarded him like a piece of trash. And now with thses facts Bungie come off even worse.

Fucking Activision.

You seem to disregard the fact that they made Halo 4. Halo 4 is a good game and 343 is a good studio. However, Halo was never anything special with Bungie and it isn't anything special after Bungie. It is more just a fanboy franchise with a lot of marketing hype behind it. Halo is good, but it is not great.

Good read indeed, good thing the guy won.

Cant wait for Destiny Taken King DLC on the the 15th September tho!! i'll buy every DLC they release for Destiny! its a good that gave me hours and hours of enjoyment and its the only game ALL my friends play

Boo hoo these companies make millions in profit, im sure Bungie are happy when they look at that bank balance.

I KNEW it!

Bungie fired Joseph Staten because of the quarrels over the story and fired O'Donnell because he wanted to be involved in his creations.

It's very hard for a Halo game to get a 90+ meta now. There's a been-there done-that feeling from the critics now.

Did we read the same article? Where does it actually say Activision meddled with the creative process, because Marty's on crack. His entire beef is over a trailer and them not releasing an album of his. Which I understand the guys pain, however he then makes a big fuss about it, gets told by other Bungie higher ups who were on previous Bungie games, to shut his yap, and he didn't.

"During E3, O’Donnell tweeted that Activision, not Bungie, had composed the trailer music. He also threatened Bungie employees in an attempt to keep the trailer from being posted online and interrupted press briefings."

"The court filings say that O’Donnell believed he was preserving Bungie’s “creative process, artistic integrity, and reputation, keeping faith with fans, and protecting Bungie and its intellectual property from Activision’s encroachment into artistic decisions.” According to O’Donnell’s view, the “Band of Brothers” ethos that had inspired the group’s earlier work was being damaged by the Activision relationship.

Ryan and other Bungie management felt that his conduct “hurt the Bungie team, hurt the game, drove a negative online discussion, and violated Ryan’s instructions.” They also believed that O’Donnell was elevating his interest in publishing Music of the Spheres over the best interests of the company. Activision advised Bungie that O’Donnell’s conduct may constitute a breach of the parties’ contract. "

The story revision part is shit that happens in games, and in a creative field. Bioshock Infinite had an absurd amount of rewrites, and it fucking showed in that game. I understand that I'm not exactly always impartial when it comes to Bungie, but I'd like something more concrete than neither bungie or activision wanting to sell a Marty's soundtarck (and for the record it would be amazing, the games have never been as good as his music), because Staten didn't get fired (that's hearsay at fucking best), but him leaving, yeah that could cause some revisioning.

Plus this whole court thing ignores that Bungie set themselves up for this relationship. Activision might have had a hand to play, because they are pretty shitty, but we're acting like Bungie didn't make the deal full well knowing what they were trying to do. This was a company coming from a mega blockbuster that at least creatively was pretty vapid, so them moving on to a prime time pub to make some prime time ass money? Not that shocking.

How they treated Marty is bullshit, but we're acting like there wasn't a what about me factor to his story. Read between the lines people.

No the **** they aren't.

Not the budget of the game, as it covers a 10 year project. It's an investment for the long haul, it's also a number that will potentially get bigger.

Not the budget of the game, as it covers a 10 year project. It's an investment for the long haul, it's also a number that will potentially get bigger.

OK, see, this is something that confuses me since it seems to flip flop often. I always heard it was $500 million for the franchise (the "five-part" series). Some say it was just for Destiny, that specific game. (Above quote from jg4xchamp)

Responding to a question from a fan, Bungie’s Eric Osborne repeated the developer’s Chief Operating Officer Pete Parsons’ explanation: “For marketing you'd have to ask Activision people, but for development costs, not anything close to $500 million,” Parsons told GameIndustry International in an interview. “I think that speaks a lot more to the long-term investment that we're making in the future of the product.”

It's some gaming media writer/"journalist" who misunderstood, something really basic. The large ass number is a long term investment Activision has put towards this franchise, and it's a number they probably have to share, because they are a publicly traded company.

@jg4xchamp: That makes more sense, because $500 million for one game is ludicrous.

Makes sense. Playing Destiny, I got a very soulless feeling from it. Even Halo at it's worst always felt "lovingly crafted" if that makes sense. I guess Acti had a lot of input on it.

I can not begin to describe how annoying it is when members of the gaming media or fucking system wars try to read something that is stock, budget, or anything potentially accounting related. Because it's so 101 shit that I'm just baffled how anyone reads it wrong.

Of the things Pachter never fucks up, that's one of them.

This is kinda funny, I guess that's what you get Bungie for leaving MS. You know that **** wouldn't go down (or at least that bad) if MS hand their hands on Destiny.

People feel the same way with Rare and Silicon Knights after they broke off with Nintendo. Although the latter has had much worse reception than the former.

Ouch. Thats sucks.

I honestly hope Bungie can afford to go indie. It seems like it would be for the best for htem.

Yeah they fucked up pretty bad and now they're locked into this deal with Activision for god knows how long...

And this also begs the question, who the hell ask for Halo Wars 2 anyways? This is just proof that MS will continue to milk this series even more when they could try out new IP's. Yes we are getting 3 new IP's like Quantum Break, ReCore, and Scalebound but my point is, do we really need another Halo Wars? Was Halo Wars consider a good game? I played Halo Wars years ago, it was okay and was surprise that an RTS work on a console.