Frank O'Connor

Frankie in the Halo 3 Announcement Trailer documentary.

"Nanomachines, magic, bullshit."

— Frank O'Connor satirically reiterating the fanbase's criticism on why John-117's armor looks different between Halo 3 and Halo 4.^[1]

Frank O'Connor, or Frankie, is the former Franchise Development Director of the Halo franchise at 343 Industries. Previously, he has worked as the content manager for Bungie. He was the primary writer of the Bungie Weekly Update through the production of Halo 2 and Halo 3, as well as the creator of Mister Chief. He announced his departure from Bungie on May 16, 2008 in order to work more closely with Microsoft Studios on Halo-related content.^[2]

O'Connor was a co-author of Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe, providing the introduction and the short stories Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian and Soma the Painter.^[3] In addition, he authored the digital novel Halo: Saint's Testimony. O'Connor also wrote the stories Dominion Splinter and The Ballad of Hamish Beamish in Halo: Tales from Slipspace and Halo: Fractures, respectively. Saint's Testimony was also included in Fractures.

He left 343 Industries in April of 2023.^[4]

Background

He is originally from Edinburgh, Scotland, where he was born and raised. Growing up Frankie was obsessed with playing games: Pong, 2600, Intellivision, Vectrex, ColecoVision, Sinclair Spectrum, Atari 800, Commodore 64 and so on, until Xbox 360 in the present day. He didn't have them all at the same time, upgrading when the next generation of systems was released.

He was able to parlay his love of video games into a career working at a number of video game magazines including Ultimate Future Magazine, TOTAL! Nintendo Magazine and the Official Xbox Magazine. He then made the jump to Bungie Studios as content manager. Asked about his typical day at the office Frankie told HIH:

“

I'm content manager, which really means, spare monkey. That means I do everything from writing the manual, helping marketing with materials, running the website and going on trips to incredible places, to shoveling pimp turds out of Marty's recording booth. Seriously. Pimps are way worse than cart horses.

”

Frankie facts

Childhood Idol?

Frankie: Billy Idol, naturally. He's not just my idol, he's the world's idol. Rock!

Do you have any pets?

Frankie: An enormous cat. Seriously, 22 pounds of rippling feline blubber. In fact, rippling is his only form of exercise.

Anything else you'd like to tell us about yourself?

Frankie: I am foreign. Like Balky. Or maybe more like Groundskeeper Willie. Also, I have an enormous tattoo of the Scottish flag on my right shoulder, underneath which is inscribed, "Scotland Forever." On account of how stupefyingly awesome Scotland is. Eventually, when the Scottish Empire has finally secured world peace and total domination of the globe, you will appreciate it.

Trivia

Frankie was usually the only player on Bungie's team wearing full Recon Armor in their Humpday games.
He appeared in a special episode of This Spartan Life in which he described some of the new features of Halo 3.
His weapon of choice is the Covenant carbine.^{[citation needed]}
He was the arch enemy of Martin O'Donnell.^{[citation needed]}
O'Connor voiced the medical technician in the motion comic adaptation of Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian.
O'Connor was given a cameo appearance in Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn. In Episode 2, he can be seen portraying a janitor named Beamish in the mess hall of the Corbulo Academy of Military Science among the crowd watching the fight between Lasky and Vickers.^[5] Beamish is a predominantly Scottish surname, which alludes to O'Connor's heritage. He reprised the role as part of 343 Industries' commitment to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in August 2014, although he did not partake in the challenge itself; Steve Downes called O'Connor out on this and nominated him to take it next.^[6]

Gallery

"Nanomachines, magic, bullshit", Frank O'Connor at an interview.^[1]
Frankie as part of the Superintendent viral campaign for Halo 3: ODST.
For the Halo Graphic Novel Frankie did this take on Dutch Artist M. C. Escher's famous drawing.
Frank O'Connor's cameo appearance in Episode 2 of Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn.