A long dispute between the composers of the original music of Halo Y microsoft has come to an end in a “friendly” way. In this way, a conflict is resolved that had even shaken the premiere of the Paramount + series based on the popular video game franchise.
The novelty was known by a brief publication on Twitter of Marty O’Donnell, one of the creators of the soundtrack in question. At the moment the details of the agreement between the parties have not been disclosed, but the expression used by the artist suggests that the arrangement has satisfied all those involved.
“Looks like I’ll be able to share some of these videos again! Microsoft and O’Donnell/Salvatori Inc. are pleased to have amicably resolved their differences,” the tweet reads. It includes a link to YouTube with the behind the scenes of the recording of the music of Halo 2 alongside Steve Vai.
Marty O’Donnell’s post implies that during the dispute with the Redmonds he was forced to remove all material from the backstage of the creation of the BSO of Halo that had been uploaded to the internet. “Yes, I should be able to post all those videos related to Halo. Soon. Of course I need to find them first,” she said in a comment.
At the moment, Microsoft has not made a public statement regarding this issue. However, the agreement with the composers could have been “the lesser evil” for those led by Satya Nadella, taking into account that if the conflict continued to escalate it could have caused much more serious problems for the company.
Microsoft and the creators of the original music of Halo finally reach an agreement
In mid-2020, Marty O’Donnell and Mike Salvatori, who in partnership composed the original music for Halo, filed a lawsuit against Microsoft. In it they claimed the corporation for unpaid royalties for the last 20 years and made very harsh accusations. They ranged from breach of contract and unlawful interference, to unjust enrichment, among several others.
The artists themselves indicated that they opted for the judicial measure after unsuccessfully insisting for a decade that the company recognize their debt. Composers claimed that music had originally been licensed to Bungiethe study that developed Halo and which Microsoft subsequently acquired. However, those from Redmond were always unaware of the existence of a license agreement and claimed that it was a commissioned work.
“It was always a license agreement; that’s what we did with Halowith the original music that was first written and recorded in 1999. We licensed it to Bungie, which was not bought by Microsoft until a year later,” O’Donnell had stated at the time.
And the story seemed to be in limbo until it became known that the composers, through their lawyers, were studying the possibility of block the release of the Halo series on Paramount+ with a court order. This novelty came to light in February, when there was only a little over a month left for the production to see the light.
It is likely that the threat has taken effect, “facilitating” negotiations between the parties involved in the conflict. We will be attentive to whether more news of the agreement between the protagonists is known soon. For now, the series Halo It has already released its first four episodes (out of a total of 9) and its continuity is assured; As for video games, recently 343 Industries confirmed that the second season of halo-infinite It will arrive in May, after an initial delay.