Timeline of development

For the full story of Oni's development, see Oni. For detailed information on the continued updates for Mac after release, see History of Mac Oni.

The Oni project started development in April of 1997 and ran for approximately 3 years, 9 months, ending in January of 2001. Through this time, the Bungie West team ran into unexpected technical and design hurdles, resulting in a much longer development period than planned. The initial internal deadline for the game was October 1999, and this was gradually pushed back quarter by quarter until the game was finished anywhere from November 2000 to January 2001 depending on the platform.

The development of the game was accompanied by unexpected events such as a financial blow to Bungie from the Myth II uninstaller bug, a partial buyout by Take-Two Interactive, turnover on the staff and a change of project lead, and then a complete buyout by Microsoft. Only a sustained crunch period at the end of development, pushing Bungie West to their limits, allowed the game to be finished to a degree where it was ready to ship, and cuts to the game were still required such as the removal of multiplayer mode.

Apr. 2, 1997	Engine quietly begins development under Brent Pease
May 15, 1997	Bungie West announces they are hiring; Michael Evans and Alex Okita onboard by this point or soon after
May 23, 1998	Oni is announced along with Myth II at E3
Dec. 28, 1998	Myth II uninstaller bug is discovered, costs Bungie about $800,000
May 13, 1999	Oni appears at E3 with hands-on demo running in multiplayer mode "Blam" project is shown to a select group behind closed doors
Jul. 21, 1999	Oni appears at Macworld NY running in multiplayer mode Halo is announced
Aug. 12, 1999	Take-Two Interactive purchases 19.9% stake in Bungie, becoming the distributor for Oni and Halo
Dec. 1999	Brent Pease leaves the Oni team
Jan. 5, 2000	Oni appears at Macworld SF and is shown on BungieTV running in multiplayer mode
May 2000	The announcement is made that multiplayer mode has been canceled
Jun. 19, 2000	Microsoft purchases 100% stake in Bungie and Take-Two gains full IP rights over Oni and Myth
Aug. 28, 2000	Oni enters beta phase of development
Nov. 4, 2000	Creation date on game data in the Windows retail release
Nov. 17, 2000	Oni is gold mastered for Windows
Nov. 20, 2000	Creation date on game data in the Windows demo and Mac retail release (in .sep format)
Dec. 15, 2000	Bungie West officially moves to Microsoft's headquarters at Redmond
Dec. 17, 2000	Windows demo released
Dec. 20, 2000	Oni is gold mastered for Mac?; creation date on game application in the Mac retail release
Dec. 22, 2000	Mac demo released
Jan. 2, 2001	Second possible date of Mac gold master
Jan. 22, 2001	Oni is gold mastered for PlayStation 2
Jan. 29, 2001	Official release date for Oni in North America on Mac, Windows and PS2