Award-winning Halo and Destiny composer Marty O'Donnell's acrimonious split with Bungie in 2014 didn't get much coverage on PC Gamer. After all, Destiny was a console exclusive, and so were the last few Halo games that O'Donnell worked on. Neither did O'Donnell winning a lawsuit against Bungie through arbitration, recovering stock and overtime pay he claimed he was owed. And now that Halo Infinite has been confirmed for the PC, O'Donnell's recent hints that he might be returning to the series are very much of interest.
Joseph Staten is a long-time Bungie employee, with credits on Halo 1, 2, 3, and Reach, and the original Destiny, although he left the studio in 2013, the year before Destiny's release. In 2014, he rejoined Microsoft Studios, where he currently serves as senior creative director. He also wrote a pair of Halo novels. Jen Taylor is still directly connected to Halo as the voice of Cortana and Dr. Halsey, who kicked off the whole Spartan program.
Steve Downes, who O'Donnell said the party missed, is the voice actor behind Halo's hulking Master Chief. Downes responded in kind.
In a follow-up tweet, O'Donnell wrote about the coffee meetup: "There was nothing 'random' about our meeting.'"
If he's not returning to score Halo Infinite, O'Donnell and his small game studio Highwire Games may be working on a project with Microsoft. Highwire's first game, Golem, is an upcoming PlayStation VR exclusive.
I've reached out to O'Donnell to see if he'll say anything more about what's going on, and will update if I receive a reply.
