Former Bungie Composer Marty O'Donnell Found In Contempt Of Court
Image: Cropped Image Of Marty O'Donnell / Gamerscore Blog

Marty O'Donnell, a former composer of the Halo and Destiny franchises, has been found contempt in court after sharing original Destiny compositions online, something that violates a previous lawsuit.

The report comes from Eurogamer, which revealed all the details. Back in 2015, a year after O'Donnell was let go from Bungie as an audio director, he was ordered in a case raised by the company to return all materials relating to Music of the Spheres, the original composition for Destiny, and all materials relating to the company.

However, it's said that in 2019, O'Donnell was discovered sharing tracks from the game on websites such as YouTube and Bandcamp. It's even claimed O'Donnell was even taking money from Bandcamp users for his work.

According to documents seen by Eurogamer, the company stated: "Mr. O'Donnell's very possession of such materials proves he did not comply with the order to return 'all material' to Bungie". As a result, O'Donnell is said to have been ordered to pay almost $100,000 for "reasonable costs", something his representatives are arguing with Bungie as being unreasonable.

It's also added that O'Donnell must "post a message, the wording of which the parties agree to, on his Twitter, YouTube, Bandcamp, and Soundcloud sites/channels stating that he did not have legal authority to possessor provide material related to Music of the Spheres or Destiny and asking anyone who previously downloaded any such assets to delete them and refrain from sharing and will destroy any copies of them"

He is still yet to do so, however music that was originally uploaded on YouTube and Bandcamp has been removed. Back in June, O'Donnell did put out a post on Twitter asking users to consider purchasing his Golem soundtrack, a 2019 PlayStation VR title which was said to "help with [his] huge legal bills". Many speculated at the time it was in relation to Bungie, and Eurogamer's report seemingly confirms these rumours.

In a since-deleted tweet back in June, O'Donnell shared a messaged claiming he was thinking about retiring from the video games industry, adding he would soon be "forced" to close down his YouTube channel.

O'Donnell has also recently been involved with the upcoming shooter Six Days in Fallujah at his new studio Highware Games, which will be a reinvention of the controversial game that was cancelled all the way back in 2009.

How do you feel about Marty O'Donnell's situation? Let us known in the comments below.

[source eurogamer.net]