Bungie buys Destiny publishing rights off Activision!

[GazzaGarratt 11,049]

This is the biggest news for quite a while to come out of Destiny. Massive implications, and I am being very positive about the future of Destiny after this statement being released.

 

OUR DESTINY

0h - Destiny Dev Team

When we first launched our partnership with Activision in 2010, the gaming industry was in a pretty different place. As an independent studio setting out to build a brand new experience, we wanted a partner willing to take a big leap of faith with us. We had a vision for Destiny that we believed in, but to launch a game of that magnitude, we needed the support of an established publishing partner.

 

With Activision, we created something special. To date, Destiny has delivered a combination of over 50 million games and expansions to players all around the world. More importantly, we’ve also witnessed a remarkable community – tens of millions of Guardians strong – rise up and embrace Destiny, to play together, to make and share memories, and even to do truly great things that reach far beyond the game we share, to deliver a positive impact on people’s everyday lives.

 

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.

 

The planned transition process is already underway in its early stages, with Bungie and Activision both committed to making sure the handoff is as seamless as possible.

 

With Forsaken, we’ve learned, and listened, and leaned in to what we believe our players want from a great Destiny experience. Rest assured there is more of that on the way. We’ll continue to deliver on the existing Destiny roadmap, and we’re looking forward to releasing more seasonal experiences in the coming months, as well as surprising our community with some exciting announcements about what lies beyond.

 

Thank you so much for your continued support. Our success is owed in no small part to the incredible community of players who have graced our worlds with light and life. We know self-publishing won’t be easy; there’s still much for us to learn as we grow as an independent, global studio, but we see unbounded opportunities and potential in Destiny. We know that new adventures await us all on new worlds filled with mystery, adventure, and hope. We hope you’ll join us there.

 

See you starside.

 

BUNGiE

[The3rdWalker 1,271]

Wonderful news. However, there's no more scapegoat now. Excited for their future. 

[Plumbers Crack 4,062]

👍 wonder what the cost was?

[J4MES OX4D 10,033]

Was inevitable really especially with the tension between the developer and publisher. Kinda mimics exactly what happened when left split from Microsoft a decade ago. Almost deja vu to a tee.

 

Bungie are probably in a in a worse situation now that what they were back then and they are expected to make a new game (probably mobile) with NetEase’s $100m investment  from last summer. 

 

Doesn’t leave much left for Activision aside from CoD and even that’s on the ropes. Not sure how viable Bungie will be as a standalone but I hope they make something fresh and original instead. 

[The3rdWalker 1,271]

Doesn’t leave much left for Activision aside from CoD and even that’s on the ropes. Not sure how viable Bungie will be as a standalone but I hope they make something fresh and original instead. 

Blizzard, MLG, Netease or whatever that Chinese mobile producer.

I think they’re doing just fine.


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[GazzaGarratt 11,049]

I think it's great news overall. However it doesn't guarantee success in any way and like Rob says, there's no one to be the scapegoat now.

 

There are now the biggest independent game publisher and I will always have a soft spot for Bungie. Halo and Halo 2 took gaming to a whole new level for me.

 

Hearing a lot of thoughts and reviews I tend to believe a lot of good value will eventually come out of this but we may be waiting for a while for how this changes the updates and world of Destiny.

 

I also think we will get a Destiny 3 too. Just a frickin better one that just has Bungie on the box.

[MrBiron 1,453]

I'm definitely interested to see who was behind all the shitty monetization and locking off content behind a pay-wall  in the first 2 games.

People seem keen to blame Activision but apparently Bungie did the same thing with the Halo games.

Unlike @GazzaGarratt I'm not in love with Bungie and Destiny as a game so I'll call them out on any bullshit.

[J4MES OX4D 10,033]

2 hours ago, MrBiron said:

I'm definitely interested to see who was behind all the shitty monetization and locking off content behind a pay-wall  in the first 2 games.

People seem keen to blame Activision but apparently Bungie did the same thing with the Halo games.

It will be interesting to see how Bungie do on their own although I suspect they may get snapped up by the Epic Store as I can't see them being sustainable long-term without substantial outsider backing. I'm surprised they managed to stump up the cash to be bought out - either Activision let them go cheap or they had external help. The fact Activision let them walk suggests Destiny 3 is shaping up badly or it wont make revenues to justify the development and upkeep costs and to keep shareholders happy. 

 

I loathe Activision but they aren't entirely to blame in this situation if at all. They funded Bungie for nearly a decade and gave them reasonable development time yet Bungie twice delivered undercooked products that needed substantial extra work which ultimately affected the quality of the next title.  Destiny 2 was threadbare and only until Forsaken did it improve and by then, most players had departed and unwilling to pay £35 to buy themselves back in. 3 years and they still delivered a shell of a game. I can only assume that Destiny 3 was struggling which is why Activision called it a day.  

 

Bungie are definitely a shadow of their former selves. - Bungie by name but not by nature and very few staff that worked on Halo still represent the company. It's Infinity Ward 2.0 pretty much.  They pissed off a lot of the community on so many occasions and Activision just took a backseat because for once, they were largely not to blame for the problems  within these games.  I wish Bungie well and hope they can salvage something of the glory days but they will certainly need to re-evaluate as a studio because lightning has struck twice with them now and they are largely to blame for the issues rather than the people backing them. 

[GazzaGarratt 11,049]

2 hours ago, MrBiron said:

I'm definitely interested to see who was behind all the shitty monetization and locking off content behind a pay-wall  in the first 2 games.

People seem keen to blame Activision but apparently Bungie did the same thing with the Halo games.

Unlike @GazzaGarratt I'm not in love with Bungie and Destiny as a game so I'll call them out on any bullshit.

Whilst I do have that soft spot for Destiny that doesn't mean I won't call them out. This forge puzzle recently was something that they tried but didn't pan out right and was wrong to timegate people into waiting for a 4th forge. However, I'll always be a person, regardless of the game, to try and understand why they do things as most changes have positive intentions. (E.g. that forge puzzle was the right concept of a hidden puzzle but by being transparent with comms about a hidden 4th forge it meant people just wanted the content tonplay and shoot stuff rather than cater to 5% of the community that are experts in the Raid Secrets community).

[GazzaGarratt 11,049]

Through what I can see and my opinion on what parts were  Activisions issues, were mainly around the production the timeline of content, the cost of this content to the consumer and microtransactions.

 

Activision investment and support has meant we have got far more regular content than we have ever before on Destiny and on most games (exception of Fortnite). The difficulty of that though is we have had to pay for that investment in a big way.

 

Season Passes are now fundamentally part of Activisions games however other companies now don't do this. Microtransactions are clearly the way to go but again should be accessible via other means (in-game currency) and if it isn't, it must be cosmetic and reasonably priced - Bungie wouldn't have put a $10 price tag on their Iron Banner, Whisper, Thunderlord, etc bundles. That's Activision.

 

I'll be clear in setting expectations which I think after this year we'll have to get used to - content will be slower as they have less developers. It's the quality of the content that needs to be there. That's what Forsaken was.

 

Until we see Anthem, which I think we're all still apprehensive about, I can't pick a game out right now that rivals the variety of content, the grouping up/social aspect, and the solid shooting that comes with a Bungie developed game.