Former Bungie composer Marty O'Donnell could be coming back to Halo

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.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.