Frank O'Connor quits Bungie for Microsoft

Blimey. Frank "Frankie" O'Connor's confirmed that he's leaving Bungie to join Microsoft, but will continue to work on the Halo franchise.

Frank is/was Bungie's content manager, and has been the "voice" of Halo for years. From here:

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.

I shared a hotel room with Frank the very first time I went to E3 in 1999. He took me out for my birthday to some club full of Hollywood producers and walked us past the queue because he used to work for Larry Flynt. We went to Fatburger at about 3am. I forget nothing, O'Connor. Good luck with the new job.