After an eight-year stint together with Activision making and publishing games, namely the Destiny franchise, developer Bungie has decided to fly solo on Destiny and future IPs, as announced on their website.
We have enjoyed a successful eight-year run and would like to thank Activision for their partnership on Destiny. Looking ahead, we’re excited to announce plans for Activision to transfer publishing rights for Destiny to Bungie. With our remarkable Destiny community, we are ready to publish on our own, while Activision will increase their focus on owned IP projects.
Bungie
This split is a premature one, seeing as the original deal the two companies struck was supposed to run from 2010 all the way through 2020, by which point they’d have released four Destiny main titles and at least four expansions.
Activision also expressed their sentiments regarding the split via Twitter.
Thank you Guardians. It’s been an honor and a privilege to help bring the world of Destiny to life for you. pic.twitter.com/EB1y19OTD8
— Activision (@Activision) January 10, 2019
Currently, Destiny 2 remains supported by Battle.net, which was made clear via Twitter as well.
This split somewhat mirrors that of Bungie’s previous relationship with Microsoft back in 2007, which ended after the release of the original Halo trilogy.
Post-Microsoft, Bungie went on to develop two more Halo games, namely ODST and Reach, the latter of which was the last game they published independently. Microsoft then went on to acquire the rights to the Halo franchise under subsidiary company 343 Industries. Their latest entry in the series is entitled Halo Infinite, which was teased at E3 last year.
Fast-forward to 2019, Bungie finds itself yet again on its own out in game development wilderness, doubling up as both developer and publisher for Destiny and future IPs. They haven’t been resting on their laurels, though, as a new IP is currently in the works, codenamed “Matter“.
This news came after the Chinese online gaming company, NetEase, gave them a $100 million boost to create new IPs and such.
What Matter actually is all about (aside from the glaring possibility that it’ll probably be a sci-fi-themed game, knowing Bungie) is a story for another time.
What matters now is the fact that Bungie is all alone once more.
But that’s a good thing, right?
Marion has a serious RPG addiction. Sometimes it bleeds into real life; he forgets to sleep because he thinks he has a Witcher’s body clock. Forgive him in advance if he suddenly blurts out terms such as “Mind Flayer” and “Magic Missile”, because never once does he stop thinking about his next Dungeons & Dragons game.
Edwin Teo
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Jake Su
