Not the first time they've ... (Full Quote) (Destiny)

by INSANEdrive, ಥ_ಥ | f(ಠ‿↼)z | ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ| ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, Friday, November 03, 2023, 16:18 (177 days ago) @ Cody Miller

It's crazy how Bungie laid off Mike Salvatori, who's been with them for over 25 years. This industry is blind. They don't care about retaining top talent and think they're expendable. It's disgusting.

I'm going to reveal something all journalists and fans should know...

It's widely believed that a lot of the original Bungie team had willingly left Bungie, but the truth is that Bungie executives had actually made decisions that led to the firing of Marcus Lehto, Jaime Griesemer, Paul Bertone, Joe Staten, and many others. None of them were officially fired. They accepted separation agreements rather than being fired, except Marcus, who simply got fed up and resigned.

A few months ago I said I'll be telling everyone some untold Bungie/Microsoft history. I've been told I'm not allowed to tell it yet for reasons I can't say, but here's something I'll share now. This all comes directly from my friends at MS or those who once worked for MS.

After Microsoft acquired Bungie in 2001, Harold Ryan (MS Test) and Pete Parsons (MS Marketing, now CEO of Bungie) were introduced to the Bungie team to help Bungie with Halo: Combat Evolved.

Sometime in 2003 during the development of Halo 2, Bungie felt their profit share of Halo was insufficient and thought of leaving MS and start a new company (go pirate). Bungie then convinced Pete (who became Studio Manager in 2002) to help them begin negotiations with MS about changing their deal. MS agreed to share but told them that it'll take time to work out the details and requested that they continue making Halo 2.

Bungie could sense bad things were going on behind the scenes, since their biggest ally at MS, @Ed_Fries (founder of Microsoft Game Studios and who made the Bungie acquisition) suddenly resigns.

Bungie agreed to get 11% of the profits of Halo 2 for the studio. In 2004, Bungie ship Halo 2 and MS tells them they get 11% of the first few million in profits and then the more money MS makes, the more the percentage to Bungie drops to 2%.

On the day Bungie ship Halo 2, they blow through the 11% and by the end of that day they're only at 2% from then on. At that point they decide to leave MS and start negotiating to become independent. Either MS makes a deal or Bungie goes pirate. There were 7 members of the Bungie team who led the charge to leave and speak with MS brass, who at that time was @Robbie_Bach.

Pete Parsons was the intermediary. He talked with Bungie, takes what they want to MS, then returns to inform them of what MS said. This went on for several months. Eventually, both Jason Jones and Marcus Lehto became frustrated and threatened to resign. Pete informed them that he told MS that he too will resign if MS don’t budge.

Bungie then hold a group meeting. It is asked that anyone who threatened to quit should leave the room. Those left in the room decide what they want to do. There were five people in the room (I won't mention their names at this time). At this point, it was suggested that all decisions should be unanimous.

They ask Marcus what they would need to do to get him to stay, to which he comes to an agreement. They do the same for Jason. Then the whole group is asked if they should do the same for Pete — it's not unanimous. Many of them believed that Pete had been double-dealing — playing both sides and not being entirely honest with either.

Bungie say goodbye to Pete and thank him for resigning. They believe that his resignation will get the attention of MS.

Bungie decide that Harold Ryan will run the business side and Marty O'Donnell will oversee the people side. Bungie then hire Don Leeds to be their negotiator. He becomes their strategist in dealing with MS, which at this point is Shane Kim. Bungie basically says, "MS give us Bungie and we'll give MS Halo 3."

It takes more than a couple of years until Bungie make the deal, and on 07/07/07 they get their official independence. Shane is there to offer positions at 343 for anyone who would rather stay safe in the arms of MS.

It was at this point that Bungie found out Pete Parsons didn't resign from MS but was simply given a different executive position; he had deceived them.

This is all I can share for now, and this begins another long part of the saga, one in which Bungie loses the aforementioned employees and many others.

The main reason Bungie changed was because of Harold Ryan and Pete Parsons. These two pretty much ruined Bungie. Someone at 343 Industries had also been bad-mouthing the Bungie team and saying they're difficult to work with. I'll let you figure out who that person was.