Original Halo Composers Are Suing Microsoft

gamerant.com:

The Halo soundtrack is one of the most recognizable in all of video games, especially its iconic main theme. Beginning with an operatic choir-like chant, the Halo theme has featured in every numbered mainline Halo game and has been remixed and covered by everything from marching bands to echoing stairwells.

The first Halo game, Halo: Combat Evolved, was developed by Bungie and released as a launch title for the original Xbox in 2001. Its popularity cemented the title not only as an iconic game, evident by all the games that tried to capitalize on Halo's popularity, but as Xbox’s flagship series. Halo as a franchise is so synonymous with Xbox that Microsoft even named its virtual assistant Cortana in a nod to the AI companion from the games.

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Equally synonymous with Halo is its soundtrack, which the original composers of are now suing Microsoft over, claiming they are owed for royalty payments dating back the game's full 20 years. Composers Marty O’Donnell and Mike Salvatori filed the lawsuit in June 2020 with no agreements yet to be made. If there are no agreements made in the next week there is chance this case could go to court.

The soundtrack might now be forever linked with Halo’s release on the original Xbox, but this was not the first time the iconic music was heard. Originally Halo was a game being developed by Bungie for the Apple Mac computer and was first revealed in a very early state at the 1999 MacWorld event. A concept trailer was played at the show and heard playing in the background is the iconicHalo theme. Bungie, which was recently acquired by Sony, was first bought in 2000 by Microsoft, the Apple project was scrapped, and Halo was reworked into the Xbox