Frank O'Connor leaves Bungie for Microsoft to work on Halo franchise

by Ross Miller on May 16th 2008 9:42PM

The long-standing "voice" of Bungie, Content Manager Frank O'Connor, is leaving the Halo studio in order to "work more closely with Microsoft on the Halo franchise." In his final Weekly Update, O'Connor sends a heartwarming thanks to the community for a number of things, among them for "not following through on the death threats" (his emphasis, not ours).

The most interesting part of his goodbye later is the tease on the "coming years." Said O'Connor, "I was busy working on a story for one of our next games, an experience that is destined to surprise, amaze and entertain like nothing we've ever made before. That game has an amazing team invested in it, and one that will be tasked with building the Next Big Thing. You should see what they've already achieved, you truly should." We'll be watching with eager eyes. Take care, Frank, you'll be missed.

(Oh, and be sure to check out all the fun Frank O'Connor Photoshops.)

Source

Tags: breakingnews, bungie, bungie-studios, frank-o-connor, halo, halo-2, halo-3, microsoft, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (54)

Sad to see Frankie leave, but even more sad to see him leave for more Halo.

If memory serves, and Frankie wrote the story and all the dialog for the Halo games, then yes, it's a shame that he has to do that to himself yet again. I loves me some Frankie, but it's not as if his writing is anything special (which is a horrible thing to say about a writer, sorry). Glad to know that atleast one voice will be inside Msoft, shouting "DOOONNNNT MIILLLK EEEETTTT, STUPEED!!" (in a brit accent) so that maybe, just maybe, we won't see a Halo 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 in the future. Well...we probably will...but atleast we probably won't see a sequel with Master Chief right? Right? Aww hell, who am I kidding, dem teets is gettin meelked ;_;

Banana, lay of the crack would ya?

....That monkey told me it was sugar!

You know it's late when you read "crack" as "coke"

Darn insomnia. Good thing noone else is awake to read this crap.

You got lucky, since the two words are interchangeable there.

So moves on one of the most masterful propagandists in gaming today (I say this in a good way).

I LOVE YOU FRANKIE.

is it me or did he sell out?

Does Ayn Rand know?

They'll just replace him with another loudmouth.

Who's frankie? And What's a halo?

So depressing. Now we're stuck with Luke.

Luke's okay... but I mean... No one can top Frankie. =(

Luke's a douche.
So is the main guy in control of the forums.

Frankie was definitely the least ass-hole-ish of the bunch.

I really hope he dose not just go behind the scenes, he is a great personality and I hope he continues to be himself.

I couldn't agree more.

You'll be missed Frank.

Saddest. Update. Ever.

(And thanks for the Recon, Bungie...OH WAIT...)

Um Okay...

He leaves Bungie creators of Halo to work with Ms in the next Halo.Okay I understand Bungie isn't a MS exclusive company anymore but aren't they going to work with MS for the next Halo anyway? What I'm missing here?

Well, as far as we know, Bungie is actually not doing whatever will basically be "Halo 4". Bungie of course will continue to collaborate with whoever does happen to work on any future Halo games for the sake of making sure they don't do anything "wrong" with the franchise. Bungie is acting like they are done with new Halos at least for now. They have had new IP's in the work since the end of Halo 1, but my guess is that Microsoft can be quite "persuasive" at times.

The Halo IP is owned by Microsoft, I think. So they could get other developers to work on a Halo spinoff, and I guess Frankie just wants to be involved in any other Halo game, not just ones made by Bungie.

Yeah Microsoft owns the rights to Halo, while Bungie still owns the rights to Marathon. The series that Halo originated from. I can't wait until Bungie brings back Marathon...it should be amazing.

Is this the same Bungie that made Marathon, the Mac FPS, like 12 years ago?

You live under a rock? Of course. =D

Who's Frank O'Connor?

Sarah O'Connor's son.

Well, that's kind of weird and potentially interesting.

I wonder whether he's going to help rescue the Halo RTS, or if he's going to the team that's working on the Halo-related thing with Peter Jackson.

What do you mean "rescue the Halo RTS"? Halo Wars is coming along just fine, in fact Halo was originally going to be an RTS.

I never much cared that much for his updates, but happy trails anyways Frankie.

To those people who are confused.

All this really means is that there is going to be more Halo coming and this pretty much shows it. John 117 will still have Frank's voice so thats awesome news.

Microsoft owns the rights to Halo, so it can never see the light of day on a Sony console just the same way MS will never see Killzone on its console (even if Guerilla gave it away, it still belongs to Sony).

This is sad news because it means that any future Bungie game will not have Frank's awesome voice to it.

Do most sony owners even want halo, the pinnacle of generic shooters? They're already getting haze they don't need another lifeless boring shooter.

Why does it mean he wont be in any Bungie game? He's worked there for years, I'm sure they'd want him back.

Tmac so true.

A modern, good FPS game starts and ends with Half Life and friends. Pretty much every other FPS is crap and fails to inspire or entertain me.

Jordan,

Actually, You have to ask yourself would any self respecting xbox owner give 2 shits about the lackluster borefest known as killzone? Looking at the acclaim and sales of the 2 franchises I'd say Halo is in a whole other League. And Haze....lol what a joke, ya that exclusivity deal has already paid huge dividends for Sony, hasn't it. Haze a joke.

"John 117 will still have Frank's voice so thats awesome news."

WOW Frankie was the voice of Master Chief????!!! I knew it though the face never matched the voice.

;)

*certainly hopes you're joking*

Money talks....perfect example.

What on earth is that pic. It's rubbish. Answered my own question.

Onwards and upwards I say! ^^

My curiosity is sparked, what could this new hidden project be I ponder.

Geez hes responsible for the bullshit that is the Halo story? the one that tries to be as intense as a movie and falls flat on its face? with so many plot holes and cleshays?

Maybe him leaving will allow Bungie to make a campaign that doesn't suck?

Seriously the multiplayer is great but when it comes to campaign, something obvious has been wrong about each game to the point of frustration. In halo1 it was the repeative level design, 2 the skitsophrenic plot and pacing and 3 the continuation of that plot along with some terrible level design.

So... he can go fuck off for sure, hes no loss for Bungie.

I think I heard your voice when you said "cleshay" so what you said can be thrown out the window. Good day, sir.

Yeah, you pretty much lost all of your credibility when you typed "cleshay." I mean typos are forgivable usually, a simple forgotten letter here or there. But "cleshay?" What are you smoking sir, and where can I get some?

The story from Halo is characteristic Jason Jones (one of the founders of Bungie). All the words with no vowels, the flip-flopping between good guys and bad guys. It's the same stuff you saw in Marathon.

So this will likely stick with Bungie.

I see no downside here...the guy behind Halo chooses to continue on that (and since he CHOSE to, it shows that he still has passion for it and will put the same effort into it), while Bungie itself continues much the same and can finally work on new stuff.

Joke response - I had to say that 3 times.

Real response - Joystiq didn't load up for a moment there.

I can't help but feel disturbed by some of these recent changes in Staff at Bungie. I know it's not uncommon for people to change jobs but it almost seems as if Bungie's old vision is changing to a new vision and the cobwebs are getting swept away. I can only hope this new vision is something I like.

Being that Frankie only came to Bungie during Halo 2 production I feel his input, into the Halo world I like, was perhaps minimal. Now I read he is going to M$ to be involved with new Halo projects. Will his new Halo world be one that I like? I hope so but I'm concerned I'm losing Halo at both Bungie and M$.

I'm not at all convinced Bungie will be able to replace my Halo fix with something better. I know I want more new Halo.

I suggest Bungie start releasing new maps at a more rapid pace. Perhaps even releasing them one at a time. Now might be a very good time to release a free map pack.

I also think that if Bungie has any Halo 3 Aces hiding up their sleeves, now would be a good time to play them. Anything that could add extra life to the Campaign and Multi-player would be nice. Halo 3 doesn't have the luxury that Halo 2 did.

Just how much did Frankie contribute to the making of the Halo games?
I wonder how the next Halo game will evolve now. With another developer possibly being involved, will this change Halo in a good way or a bad way? I always liked the Halo games. I wish there couldve been a better story line and a longer campaign though.

What happens to the multiplayer now for the next Halo? As much as I dislike many of the Halo 3 maps, they had something with Halo online that was just awesome. That alone carried the franchise with Halo 2 and 3. If they dont come out with not only a great campaign, but the same and improved online play, Halo will not have as big an impact next time.

Yeah I can't spell a differcult word, that I don't frequently use. It's perfectly find to discredit what I say because of such a small thing.

If you want to imagine my voice while your reading my posts try deep and with an english accent, cheers.

That's funny.

When reading your post and enjoying your obvious lack of spelling acumen, I visualized a budding 13 year dreaming of the day his sack drops and praying his acne doesn't scar him for life.

Now...as to the others who think Frankie voices the chief, he doesn't, Steven Downs always has.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_Chief_(Halo)

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Frank O'Connor leaves Bungie for Microsoft to work on Halo franchise

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