There was something similar with the soundtrack of Doom Eternal [1]. They were also about to get paid billions by Microsoft and didn't pay the composer.
That story sounds way worse. Mick Gordon seemed to understand the business side better than the people at Id he was talking to. That's more of a sad story of a guy being treated poorly by an incompetent/malicious company steamrolling over him, throwing him under the bus, refusing to listen to reason, and doubling down every step of the way with no justice in sight.
Julian's story is more a story of a misunderstood artist caring more about the art than the money, mistaking contract work for friendship, struggling with the consequences, hating himself for it, and finally coming to terms with it.
That seems to happen quite often. People forget that it's impossible to be friends with someone who's employing you without some major conflicts of interest on both sides.
Wow. Just wow. I would say that's godawful but it would be a gross understatement.
Given the blatantly deliberate blocking to get the OST done and getting a moron to ghostwrite it makes me think id deliberately decided to ruin Mick's reputation so the fans would eat him alive and then they went for straight up libel to complete it. Marty Stratton, what a complete piece of shit.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33532078