On April 15th, Destiny and long term-Bungie composer Marty O'Donnell tweeted that he had been let go from the studio. The composer tweeted that "Bungie's board of directors terminated me without cause on April 11, 2014".
The tweet was published the first night of a two-day press tour - which included ourselves - publisher Activision had organised to Bungie's studio in Seattle. Overnight Bungie issued a press release stating that they'd parted "as friends".
When we and other press arrived to start the second day - a day that was mainly booked for interviews, Bungie COO Pete Parsons read out a short statement to us.
"I'm sure many of you have heard the news about Marty O'Donnell. At Bungie, we don't take that kind of thing lightly, we don't make decisions lightly. We're a team that's committed to making an amazing game, set within an amazing universe. We hope you understand today is about that experience that you had yesterday; that's what we're going to be focused on. At this time, we won't be commenting any further."
O'Donnell's music has been closely tied with the company's projects since 1998's Myth II, and defined the soundscape of the Halo franchise. With Bungie setting up Destiny as the main focus for the company's long-term future, the question arises as to who'll take over the Audio Lead slot in his absence. As for the reasons behind the split, we'll have to wait to hear more.
You can read about our impressions of the game (and its music) here.