Bungie President Harold Ryan Steps Down

[Steven Bogos]

Bungie President Harold Ryan Steps Down

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Harold Ryan has been president of Bungie for the last 16 years.

Today, Destiny developer Bungie has announced that Harold Ryan, president/studio head of the company for the last 16 years, has stepped down. Former COO Pete Parsons will take his place as the new CEO of the company.

"I want to personally thank Harold for his friendship, passion, hard work, and dedication in helping make Bungie the great company it is today. As a team, we celebrated many victories and weathered many storms," wrote Parsons in an opening address.

He stressed that Destiny players are his number one priority, and ensuring that the game's "one-of-a-kind experience" is up to par will be what he is focusing on. He promises that we "have yet to see" the studio's best work on the game.

Ryan was president of Bungie for pretty much all of the studios major titles: from ONI's release back in 2001, to the runaway success that was the Halo series. It's difficult to see what direction the company will head in without him.

Source: Bungie [https://www.bungie.net/7_Bungie-Studio-News/en/News/News?aid=14282]

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[IamLEAM1983]

I'd love to have someone interview him, a few years down the line. What motivated that resignation? Did he feel confined by Activision's stated directions for the company? Were there greener pastures elsewhere?

 

[gigastar]

So what we could infer from this, is that working with Activision must be worse than working with Microsoft.

Or the guy may have simply wanted to move on. We will never know for sure.

 

[SlumlordThanatos]

Maybe now Bungie will get around to adding the basic features that Destiny has needed since launch. You know, like an in-game way to find people to raid with, and being able to access the Grimoire without having to use the site or the mobile app.

 

[Callate]

When asked about what he would do with his free time, Ryan replied, "Try to work out the paperwork on who currently holds the lien on my soul."

...Sorry, too harsh?

 

[King_Julian]

the only reason i left destiny behind is because i expected juat a little more of an mmo aspect to it as in some unique armour.........all these weapons and armour in the game dont mean jack shit if everyone is using the same ones the entire time.

 

[Bat Vader]

First David Gaider leaves Bioware and now this. Seems like a lot of developers are losing people these days.

 

[fix-the-spade]

I'd love to have someone interview him, a few years down the line. What motivated that resignation? Did he feel confined by Activision's stated directions for the company? Were there greener pastures elsewhere?

I would say the whole kerfuffle between Bungie and Marty O'Donnell made his position untenable, it was simply a matter of waiting long enough to properly set up succession and not make it completely obvious.

Alternatively, the guy's pushing fifty and a millionaire, maybe he just wants to go have some fun with his money instead of living the rest of his life in stress land or waiting until he's too old and decrepit to actually do the things on his bucket list.

 

[SmugFrog]

He promises that we "have yet to see" the studio's best work on the game.

I think I saw some of it in those early teasers where the game looked genuinely fun. Oh, he means to say Destiny 2 and 3 perhaps? For those that don't know they went right to work on the sequel when the first one was out the door.

I was a longtime Bungie fan but all the negatives I've heard about Destiny make me glad I never bothered with it. Sure it's pretty, and I'll bet it's fun for a while if you have some friends to play it with... But I have to say no to Bungie - when Activision absorbed them they changed.

 

[Jburton9]

When asked about what he would do with his free time, Ryan replied, "Try to work out the paperwork on who currently holds the lien on my soul."

...Sorry, too harsh?

I feel you are spot on : )

Ah bummer, he exited with marketing catch phrases. I wonder how much of his soul he had to give up in exchange for the money? Maybe he hit his tolerable limit and decided to get out while the getting was good. I am reminded of the Bioware exit made by a pair of devs awhile back.

 

[Sarge034]

Destiny is your number 1 focus, really? Goodbye Bungie, you had a good long life and we had some really good times... but imma need you to set down beside Old Yeller for just a sec. *click*