Former Destiny dev admits Activision deal was \u201cbad from the start\u201d Bungie[jwplayer rhX0xEL2] Activision assumed control over the Destiny franchise for almost five years until their split from Bungie in 2019. Now former franchise dev and composer Martin O\u2019Donnell has just revealed how troubling the initial deal truly was. Initially pitched as an evolving multiplayer project spanning a full decade, Bungie\u2019s follow up to the Halo series was its most ambitious undertaking yet. After shopping the idea around to big-name publishers, the developers eventually settled with Activision. In January 2019 this relationship came crashing down as Bungie assumed full rights to the Intellectual Property (IP). O\u2019Donnell, an iconic gaming composer that just so happened to work on the first iteration of Destiny, has now shared his explosive take on the deal. Even outlining how developers at Bungie \u201cknew it was a risk right from the get-go.\u201d In a July 6 interview with popular Halo YouTuber \u2018HiddenXperia,\u2019 O\u2019Donnell vented his frustrations with the agreement, and offered his first thoughts on the matter since his messy firing from Bungie in 2014. Initially close to signing a new deal with Microsoft, O\u2019Donnell explained why Bungie turned it down. The corporation owns the Halo IP. Despite Bungie developing games in the franchise all throughout the 2000s, it was Microsoft\u2019s franchise through and through. They wanted to take Destiny in a different direction and maintain control of the property. \u201cThe reason we went with Activision, as part of the contract, they didn\u2019t own the IP,\u201d he explained. \u201cMicrosoft owns the Halo IP. We wanted to make sure that whoever we worked with next would not own the IP.\u201d While many offers were on the table following the success of the Halo franchise, they signed with Activision to keep Destiny as their own. Unfortunately, this didn\u2019t quite pan out as many of the higher-ups at Bungie had envisioned. \u201cIt was bad from the start,\u201d O\u2019Donnell explained. Activision didn\u2019t have \u201cthe legal right to mess with the IP.\u201d The only way to keep that rule enforced was for all of the leaders at Bungie to agree and outright say that \u201cyou can\u2019t mess with the IP.\u201d Ultimately, there was a difference of opinion, and \u201cthat\u2019s not what happened.\u201d Certain Bungie developers sided with Activision on the direction of Destiny while others did not. That\u2019s why they fired me,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was probably my biggest disappointment. We worked for a decade to make sure we could be in a position where we could stand up to the publisher and say, no, we own the IP, you can\u2019t mess with it. And I was overruled and eventually let go.\u201d The topic begins at the 1:38:30 mark for mobile readers It\u2019s no secret that development on Destiny was extremely scattered before release. Iterations of the game were scrapped and much of the story was altered last minute. Most simply ended up on Grimoire cards instead. There\u2019s no telling how much of this was down to the clash between Bungie and Activision, though it certainly seems to have been the main factor behind Destiny\u2019s sloppy launch. Reflecting on the end of the relationship in 2019, O\u2019Donnell thought to himself that it was \u201cabout time.\u201d Much of his work on the Destiny soundtrack alongside Beatles member Paul McCartney was kept under wraps by Activision. Though you can listen to their efforts on Music of the Spheres thanks to recent leaks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Destiny dev admits Activision deal was \u201cbad from the start\u201d Bungie[jwplayer rhX0xEL2] Activision assumed control over the Destiny franchise for almost five years until their split from Bungie in 2019. Now former franchise dev and composer Martin O\u2019Donnell has just revealed how troubling the initial deal truly was. Initially pitched as an evolving multiplayer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}