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Hidden away not so subtlety in Bungie's new Weekly Update is a sad realization: Frank "Frankie" O' Connor, Bungie's ever popular Scottish-born lead writer and resident "content monkey", announced his departure from the studio. "WHAT!?", you say? I know. There there, dear Halo fan, everything shall be alright.
Whilst the Frankster will no longer "officially" be an employee of the House of Halo, he will still be very much involved with the series, as he says that he is "off to work more closely with Microsoft on the Halo
franchise." See? That means any future installments of the possibly-not-starring-Master Chief franchise will likely still have a touch of Frank's finesse applied to it.
In his lengthy good-bye letter, Frankie teases out Bungie's future projects, and says that they will essentially blow gamers away "like nothing we’ve ever made before". He also thanks the fans for a multitude of things including "not following through with the death threats", and "being patient when things went wrong", or basically 'when s*** hit the fan, in the Halo's community. Farewell, Frankie. It's been fun. Good luck in your new ventures, we look forward to your inevitable work on Halo 4.
The full, tear-jerking letter after the jump.
Dear BungieFans,
It’s not you, it’s me.
In many ways, you’re too good for me. You can find someone better.
Maybe a little hairy dude. Maybe a Hungarian Unicyclist. I just know
that I don’t deserve you, and that this is just as hard for me as it is
for you.
Yours truly,
Frankie.
I am
leaving you. I am off to work more closely with Microsoft on the Halo
franchise, so I shan’t be too far away, but I wanted to take this last
chance, appropriately enough in a Weekly Update, to tell you a very
fond thanks. Thanks for being the most energized, enthusiastic, loyal,
faithful, creative, imaginative and incredible community any video game
could ever have.
Thanks for being patient when things went wrong, when playlists didn’t
work, when matchmaking broke, when bugs were being fixed. Thanks for
the mail, the screenshots, the movies, the machinima, the models, the
paintings and the sheer enthusiasm and talent you’ve shown me over the
years.
Thanks for not following through on the death threats.
Thanks for sticking with us through thick and thin and thanks for the
loyalty you’re going to show Bungie over the coming years.
And on that note, let me tell you a bit about the coming years. It was
very hard for me to make the decision to move on, but one thing that
made it just a bit easier, was seeing the amazing work that’s coming
down the pipe. 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.
And there are other things rumbling at Bungie, just as secret, just as
epic and just as incredible. And the thing that turns all that rumbling
into incredible gameplay experiences is, has always been and will
always continue to be, the people.
The brilliant, talented, industrious gang of geniuses who brought you
everything from a monochrome Pong clone to the staggering vistas and
vision of Halo 3.
Artists, engineers, musicians, designers, writers, administrators,
producers, managers, even our security staff are Bungie people, through
and through. They are all, every last man, woman and Bob, the very
essence of the spirit of the company and the thing I will miss most of
all.
There are too many to name. More than 120 now, more than double the
number than when I first started, about halfway through Halo 2. Amazing
to think that I am Old School Bungie, when I never felt like anything other than a wide-eyed child in a moonlit candy store.
So thanks again. And look forward to all that candy. They’re making it for you.
Goodbye, thanks for all the Photoshops today - and don’t eat stuff off the sidewalk."
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