JavaScript is required to use Bungie.net

Forums

originally posted in: CONFIRMED: BUNGIE SOLD ITS SOUL...
Edited by Circadian Wolf: 9/6/2015 5:16:42 AM
12
I just read the entire legal document O.o In conclusion: Early on in the creation of destiny, Bungie suggested Marty make the soundtrack in advance rather than throughout the duration of the game, they also proposed to release this soundtrack as a separate product, titled "Music of the Spheres". Marty thought this was awesome and got to work making the soundtrack. As time passes everyone is happy with the music and bungie makes arrangements to present the music along with the game at E3, including a trailer for the game with said music. Activison interferes shortly before release and takes over the creation of the trailer, electing to use their own music in favour of Music of the spheres. Marty is upset with this and argues activision is overstepping its boundaries by interfering with creative content, he claimed this was in order to protect Bungie's reputation and to ensure Activision does not meddle too deeply in the creative aspects of the game. CEO Harold Ryan shares his concerns but activison reject their concerns. Marty posts on his twitter that the music in the trailer is not his and threatens bungie employees in an attempt to prevent it from being widely noticed. Activision warns that they aren't happy with his behaviour and suggest firing him, CEO Harold Ryan agrees but such action is not taken. At the same time Bungie has made little progress with publishing Music of the Spheres as a seperate product, which also infuriates Marty. He becomes less focused on his work as a result, being distracted by efforts to publish Music of the Spheres. However Bungie still makes no effort to release it. As time passes he becomes less productive and other audio staff comment that he is becoming a nuisance. Bungie arranges his termination for summer 2014. Marty argues that it does not give him enough time to finish the game's audio as he cannot do it until the game is in a bug-free, playable state and that his treatment was unfair. Other members of the team complain that his presence is becoming outright detrimental to audio production and Bungie proceeds to fire him, also withholding his company shares and pushing him out of the payment policy they had in mind for destiny. Marty sues for various reasons following this termination (I really can't be bothered to go into all the details). Bungie counter-sues for various reasons. The end result is that Bungie is ordered to give Marty a considerable portion of his shares in light of his great contribution to the company over the years and Marty is ordered to return all destiny and music of the spheres related stuff. My synopsis: Marty was really excited by the idea of music of the spheres being publish as a cd track. So much that he poured all his passion into making the music. Then when Activision decided not to use the music for promoting destiny he grew upset, feeling that his work was going unappreciated and that Activison had little to no interest in the concerns of Bungie as a developer. (Here's a key point) [quote]According to O’Donnell’s view, the “Band of Brothers” ethos that had inspired the group’s earlier work was being damaged by the Activision relationship.[/quote] He tries to defend his work and the Bungie creative process from activison (Albeit rather excessively) but they simply brush it off. On top of this Bungie isn't making an effort to publish the Music of the Spheres as he hoped. He worries that all his hard work that he was really passionate about is going to go unappreciated in favour of activision's "cliche shooter" style. Bungie is unhappy with his attitude and he is unhappy with their willingness to roll over for activison. As time passed he grows less passionate about the game to the point where he becomes a detriment to its production. Bungie fires him (which is fair enough) but decides to withhold as much money/shares of his as they can. He is upset and sues. Please read this cause it took sooo long to type.
English

Posting in language:

 

Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

  • Tnx

    Posting in language:

     

    Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

  • Marty got gotten by the greeds. :P

    Posting in language:

     

    Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

  • One bump for good summary.

    Posting in language:

     

    Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

  • I read it, Marty wasn't really doing much to make himself look good.

    Posting in language:

     

    Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

  • Exactly. These little kiddos get all mad and want to rage against Activision, but if you read the article it does more to hurt O'Donnel's case than help it. I believe he got what he was owed from the judge, however.

    Posting in language:

     

    Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

  • [quote]Marty posts on his twitter that the music in the trailer is not his and [b]threatens bungie employees[/b] in an attempt to prevent it from being widely noticed.[/quote] My final question is: What kind of threats are we talking about?

    Posting in language:

     

    Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

  • Now, here is my question.... Why did he try to sue? He knew he needed to be fired intentionally to get his Founder shares. So why sue for wrongful termination? If it did go through, He would not have been able to get paid, I'm sure he knew this. And if he did, why suddenly give in and then go for even more money? He already got his Founder shares, so why did he go for even more money? To me it sounds like he did all this on purpose to guarantee he got paid, but he didnt realize it would take so long for the final verdit to come. If he did indeed do this on purpose, this he should be considered a horrible human being because of the fact he had to screw over his entire company to get it.

    Posting in language:

     

    Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

  • Edited by Shadow Artiste: 9/6/2015 7:16:40 AM
    What a well written and thoughtful summary of the situation. Thanks. I would add that I'm not convinced Marty was as [i]disruptive[/i] and [i]threatening[/i] as its laid out because of the following reasons and my own significance in the entertainment industry. Activision informs (threatens) Bungie that Marty is in danger of causing Bungie to breach the contract. This is their way of asking Bungie to fire him. It's a veiled threat. At this stage they've already got all of the music for Destiny and Harold Ryan is a super corporate and sterile director (listen to the Bungie podcast from years ago where he is on it) so he rolls over to his financiers (Activision). The only problem is you can't fire someone without sufficient reason so you have to start proving you're unhappy with their work or behaviour. Now, I was a manager for West Farmers in Australia and we did this to many staff. You just start filing negative reports in them for any reason that is subjective. You just say they're not motivated, distracted etc and you don't even need to prove it. Then you can fire then after enough negative reports. It's common practice. I highly doubt Marty was acting the way he was because he's a statesmen of the gaming industry and a highly ethical individual that helped build Bungie into the company they were. My reading of it was after Activision started to put the pressure on Bungie to fire Marrty, Harold started engineering the negative reports against Marty. And trust me, it's not coerce other employees to back you up, especially if you're offering them better conditions or a promotion. And if Marty was being threatening and disruptive then Bungie might have had the case to uphold their decision to withhold Marty's shares and benefits (in entertainment contracts you can have your royalties revoked if you harm the project), but the court ruled in his favour. So yeah, I don't quite believe the claims bright against Marty, and it seems the courts didn't either.

    Posting in language:

     

    Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

  • Edited by REXEL: 9/6/2015 5:59:38 PM
    [quote] The only problem is you can't fire someone without sufficient reason so you have to start proving you're unhappy with their work or behaviour. Now, I was a manager for West Farmers in Australia and we did this to many staff. You just start filing negative reports in them for any reason that is subjective. You just say they're not motivated, distracted etc and you don't even need to prove it. Then you can fire then after enough negative reports. It's common practice. I highly doubt Marty was acting the way he was because he's a statesmen of the gaming industry and a highly ethical individual that helped build Bungie into the company they were. My reading of it was after Activision started to put the pressure on Bungie to fire Marrty, Harold started engineering the negative reports against Marty. And trust me, it's not coerce other employees to back you up, especially if you're offering them better conditions or a promotion. And if Marty was being threatening and disruptive then Bungie might have had the case to uphold their decision to withhold Marty's shares and benefits (in entertainment contracts you can have your royalties revoked if you harm the project), but the court ruled in his favour. So yeah, I don't quite believe the claims bright against Marty, and it seems the courts didn't either.[/quote] This is actually a good point, it's actually a pretty common practice among companies to do this, especially during a restructuring phase. I had a few family members who started getting negative reviews/reports against them for the most minor of things when new management was put in place, and they had been with the outfit for over 10 years. It doesnt make sense to fire the most seasoned employees other than not wanting to pay higher wages along with pensions (if they are getting close to being eligble for one). I think marty's situation was more than a company wanting to get rid of an employee just to save a few dollars, but I dont think it is out of the realm of possibility that the workplace was intentionally made difficult so they had reason to terminate his employment.

    Posting in language:

     

    Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

  • Props for summarising it for us

    Posting in language:

     

    Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

  • Good post mate

    Posting in language:

     

    Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

  • Activision is a pos. No ones surprised by this. Theyre horrible. I feel for Marty and I know activision doesnt really care about the creative expression of bungie and just want the most money it can produce. Although he shouldve handled it a little better. -blam!- activision. Great summary.

    Posting in language:

     

    Play nice. Take a minute to review our Code of Conduct before submitting your post. Cancel Edit Create Fireteam Post

You are not allowed to view this content.
;
preload icon
preload icon
preload icon