In a video posted to his YouTube channel, former Bungie composer Marty O'Donnel has told fans to stop sharing, remove, and "destroy" any non-commercially available music related to Destiny or Music of the Spheres. This is a court-ordered message O'Donnell was required to make after the former Destiny composer was found in contempt of court earlier this year.
O'Donnell joined Bungie in 1999 and worked on titles such as Myth, Oni, Halo, and Destiny. O'Donnell's work was critically acclaimed and his scores for titles such as Halo 3 are known around the world by gamers and non-gamers alike. However, his last project with Bungie was the work he performed on Destiny, and disagreements with both Bungie and its publishing partner Activision would lead to his employment being terminated.
This last project, titled Music of the Spheres, was a collaboration between O'Donnell with Paul McCartney, Michael Salvatori, and C. Paul Johnson. The 8 movement symphony was meant to be implemented in the upcoming Destiny. However, when the gameplay reveal trailer was debuted at E3 2013, O'Donnell discovered that his original music had been pulled by the publisher of the series at that time, Activision. Upset, O'Donnell took to Twitter which upset management at both Bungie and Activision. Throwing more fuel on the fire was the revelation that Music of the Spheres wouldn't get a standalone release, something that O'Donnell had been campaigning hard for. While he continued to work with Bungie for another year, his resentment of the decisions made and overall attitude led to fellow staff complaining. On April 11, 2014, his contract was terminated.
That same year, O'Donnell successfully sued Bungie for benefits that were unpaid. In the filing, O'Donnell stated that he wasn't given an explanation for his termination and that he was deprived of accrued but unused vacation time, paid time off, sabbatical time, and other benefits. Earlier this year, O'Donnell was found in contempt of court after posting music from Music of the Spheres and other Destiny- related music online at various platforms such as Bandcamp. The court ordered O'Donnell to give Bungie any money earned from the sales of the music uploaded to Bandcamp as well as paying their legal fees. Additionally, O'Donnell must post a message to his social media channels containing wording agreed to by both channels.
Earlier today, that message went live. The transcription is as follows:
"To Whom it May Concern,
I do not have, and have not had since at least April 2014, the legal authority to possess or distribute non-commercially available material related to Destiny or Music of the Spheres (including material I composed or created while working for Bungie). This material is owned by Bungie. If you posted any of these assets on a website or other publicly available platform, you should remove the content immediately. If you have copies of these assets, you should refrain from sharing and destroy any copies of them. This request does not apply to any Destiny or Music of the Spheres material that you lawfully obtained from commercially available sources.
Thank you,
Marty O’Donnell"
Following his departure from Bungie, founded the video game development studio Highwire Games. He worked on the soundtrack for their debut game, Golem, which was released in November of 2019. Following the release of Golem, a musical prequel album was released titled Echoes fo the First Dreamer: The Musical Prequel to Golem. Several rumors have since been floated that O'Donnell may retire from video game composition, likely as a result of the lawsuits with Bungie.