Marty O'Donnell, the original composer behind Halo and Destiny, claims his YouTube channel is being forced to shut down as part of some wider legal troubles. O'Donnell is well known for his iconic music for Halo and Destiny. In addition to composing soundtracks, O'Donnell also worked as Bungie's audio director and was a member of Bungie's Board of Directors. To the surprise of many, O'Donnell suddenly departed Bungie back in 2014, later claiming he was terminated without cause.

Although Marty O'Donnell's original soundtracks are some of the best remembered in gaming history, his relationship with Bungie broke down rapidly in the months leading up to Destiny's 2014 launch. Things soured to the point that O'Donnell waged a legal fight against his former employers for unpaid wages. He ended up winning the court case back in 2015, with the origin of the disagreement reportedly revolving around Bungie's handling of O'Donnell's music. In the years since, O'Donnell co-founded indie studio Highwire Games, developer of highly controversial FPS Six Days in Fallujah, and he composed the score for the studio's 2019 VR game Golem.

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Friday morning, Marty O'Donnell stated, "I'm thinking about retiring from the games industry for good," the first of a series of deleted tweets. He also shared that he'll "be forced to shut this down soon," sharing a link to his YouTube channel, where he's shared many behind-the-scenes moments from Bungie history, such as Halo-era office life and an early version of Destiny 1's theme song. Another tweet seemed to indicate that Bungie CEO Pete Parsons is somehow involved in his current issues, which may go beyond having his YouTube channel taken down. O'Donnell also shared a message on his YouTube channel (and later tweeted) asking fans to purchase his Golem OST to help pay his "huge legal fees," which could be related to the channel's possible closure. At press time, nothing concrete has been confirmed.

In the years following his acrimonious departure from Bungie, Marty O'Donnell has given multiple candid interviews. He claimed in 2020 that he and other Bungie directors believed that striking a deal with former Destiny publisher Activision was a major risk. O'Donnell's words proved to be true, with Activision and Bungie parting ways in 2019. According to him, the publisher and developer ran into multiple disagreements over the future direction of the Destiny franchise.

The context surrounding Marty O'Donnell's latest announcement is not clear, as it's not known if the allegedly imminent shutdown the composer's YouTube channel is his own choice or if it's a result of external forces, like legal threats. Going by O'Donnell's tweets and YouTube posts along, it seems possible that Pete Parsons (and/or Bungie) is unhappy with the content on his YouTube channel, likely as it relates to the Destiny series (as Bungie gave up Halo rights when it left Microsoft). Whatever the reasoning may be, removing all of the content from O'Donnell's YouTube channel would be an extremely difficult pill for Halo and Destiny fans to swallow, as he's shared interesting, harmless parts of Bungie history that the company itself hasn't done much publicly to preserve.

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Source: Marty O'Donnell/TwitterMartin O'Donnell/YouTube