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Bungie splits with Activision; retains ownership of Destiny IP

FusionNY

FusionNY

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,704


Destiny 2 launching in its state was likely pushed by Activision and not Bungie. It would have been great if Bungie was able to make a game that sated both core and casual fans but feelings around the Destiny would be likely be a lot different had they stayed the course of D1 Year 3 > Hardcore Focused D2 > Forsaken.
 
Phil me in

Phil me in

Member
Nov 22, 2018
1,292
What's with the first page weird obsession of ms taking over? Yeah more games going exclusive is what we need...
 
Nooblet

Nooblet

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,622
FusionNY said:


Destiny 2 launching in its state was likely pushed by Activision and not Bungie. It would have been great if Bungie was able to make a game that sated both core and casual fans but feelings around the Destiny would be likely be a lot different had they stayed the course of D1 Year 3 > Hardcore Focused D2 > Forsaken.
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Acti may have pushed in other areas (paid DLCs, no year long breaks like Massive got between ending Division 1 support and launching Division 2 etc) but we know for a fact that Destiny 2 was suppose to come out in 2016 but the development ran into creative issues and lack of focus, so it got rebooted around some point in late 2015/early 2016 (basically the same thing that happened with Destiny 1) and Bungie renegotiated with Activision for a new game every 3 years instead of every 2 years as was stated in original contract leading to 2017 launch for D2. They had 3 years to make a game, out of which one whole year was an extension which they asked for because they couldn't manage the project...that's hardly getting pushed by Acti.
 
elenarie

elenarie

Game Developer
Verified
Jun 10, 2018
9,796
Crucible said:
From my understanding bungie employes about 600-700+? people. The cost to keep the studio running as their own publisher, interested to see those numbers.
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Regarding the Destiny IP, it's not just the Bungie employees, but the rest of the supporting studios, and core Activision backend / tech / support teams as well, and the opportunity costs of having all those people working on the Destiny IP instead of something else. When you're working on such a big IP, costs tend to rise up quite quickly.
 
jelly

jelly

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
33,841
elenarie said:
Interesting news, definitely. Would be interesting to see what happens next with Bungie in general.

I'd be curious to see the running and production costs of something like Destiny 2, and whether Activision thought that dropping the IP would be more beneficial rather than to invest in a 3rd entry.
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Yeah, that's a solid for take. The cost of running that studio must be quite high and would likely ramp up for a third entry with possibly more outside studio help they maybe aren't keen on doing anymore. The numbers probably don't add up to anything worth continuing with or get shot pronto dwindling margins. Activation may have walked and initiated it but Bungie probably knew it wasn't going to last and got out unscathed perhaps which is a decent all things considered but the adjustment will be interesting to see.
 
VariantX

VariantX

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,880
Columbia, SC
molnizzle said:
Like perhaps...

F1WBKJ1.png


mHv1nne.gif
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Would be great to actually be able to build content a better pace hopefully.
 
Megatron

Megatron

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,445
Nooblet said:
Destiny 2 was originally suppose to come out in 2016 until Bungie negotiated an extension and pushed out ROI to fill the void. The development was rebooted just around a year and half before the 2017 launch, a repeat of what happened with D1's launch which was also rebooted so late and close to launch. D2 being rushed was not due to lack of time because 3 years is a long time to make a game, but the D2 we got certainly did not take 3 years to make.
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In normal circumstances 3 years is plenty of time, but they were constantly releasing major expansions along the way as well which in theory would have taken time away from working on Destiny 2.
 
Nooblet

Nooblet

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,622
BBQ_of_DOOM said:
Which is?
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In vault of Glass's final boss fight you get marked and teleported to a different time to basically get wiped from existence but you can clense yourself and come back to the present to hit back at the boss, at which point the game says "Guardians make their own fate". If the players are unable to clense and come back leading to a team wipe then the game says something like Guardians were lost in time.
 
Colloco

Colloco

Self-Requested Ban
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
403
florida
dex3108 said:
Bungie and Activision are splitting up, an industry-shaking divorce that will see Destiny enter fully into Bungie's control.

This development comes after years of tension between the two companies—tension that has existed since before the first Destiny even shipped. Bungie delivered the news to employees during a team meeting this afternoon.

Destiny, which first launched in September 2014, has had a long and rocky road through expansions, updates, and a sequel. The most recent major entry in the franchise, Destiny 2: Forsaken, was beloved by players but failed to meet Activision's sales standards.



https://kotaku.com/bungie-splits-with-activision-1831651740

And officially

https://www.bungie.net/en/Explore/Detail/News/47569
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hallelujah

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Quad Lasers

Quad Lasers

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,542
Gonna be real interesting to see going forward if the lionshare of Destiny's past fuckups rest on Bungie's or Activision's management.
 
Nooblet

Nooblet

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,622
Megatron said:
In normal circumstances 3 years is plenty of time, but they were constantly releasing major expansions along the way as well which in theory would have taken time away from working on Destiny 2.
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But they did have the benefit of having help from other Activision studios and remember that they are also a huge studio themselves with 750 people, not all of which were working on one game at a time. It's likely that hundreds of them (which would basically be the size of other normal AAA studios) were only working on D2 and not the D1 expansions.
 
chrisPjelly

chrisPjelly

Avenger
Oct 29, 2017
10,491
Microsoft has gotta be
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right now

That be an amazing way to re-energize first party confidence going into next gen
 
Dunlop

Dunlop

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,468
This is just deja vu for me from when they left Microsoft. Posters on the other site were so excited and then reality kicked in when they partnered with someone else
 
Mitsurugi

Mitsurugi

Alt-account
Member
Dec 11, 2018
1,080
daTRUballin said:
And hey, maybe this could let 343 take a break from Halo and do something new while Bungie takes over the Halo series again. That would be really interesting. Though I don't know how well Bungie will be able to handle Halo these days. Isn't there a bunch of former Bungie staff working at 343 now anyway?
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Nah, let 343 continue with Halo and let Bungie work on something totally different if they're willing to. Yes I miss Bungie's Halo but 343 are doing well now. 4 was utter shite and 5 gave me hope
 
FF Seraphim

FF Seraphim

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,700
Tokyo
This is great for Bungie. But what does that mean for people on PC for Destiny 2? Will Battlenet continue to support it for a while?
Looking forward to Destiny 3.
 
Iucidium

Iucidium

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,044
Chaz said:
Its hard to know whether the main issue is man-power or how easy it is to add content with the current engine. Bungie either need to expand massively or spend major time retooling the engine to aid development. Its hard to say with such little knowledge on it all, but it wont be easy for Bungie to keep up the current pace (especially when there are plenty people who think D2 isn't updated enough even now)
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But they did that for Destiny 2!!
quick and dirty PC port lol
 
Newman

Newman

Member
Oct 28, 2017
161
daTRUballin said:
And hey, maybe this could let 343 take a break from Halo and do something new while Bungie takes over the Halo series again. That would be really interesting. Though I don't know how well Bungie will be able to handle Halo these days. Isn't there a bunch of former Bungie staff working at 343 now anyway?
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I don't know how to respond to these comments anymore. It's been 8 years give or take since Bungie officially ended their involvement with the Halo series. There were a small handful of former Bungie employees at 343 but it wasn't many.

The Bungie of 2001-2010 is LONG GONE!
No Marty O'Donnell
No Joe Staten
No Joe Tung
No Jaimie Greissmer
No Marcus Lehto
No Vic DeLeon (one of the few former Bungie employees that went to 343. He no longer works there either)

Bungie ain't the Bungie that they used to be.
Heck even 343 has seen some pretty big departures the past few years but no one I would say is "irreplacible" like Joe Staten for example.

And anyone who thinks 343 should just up and work on a new franchise A: Doesn't know anything about 343 down to the meaning of its name and B: Severely underestimates how large the Halo franchise is and how much more than just make games 343 actually does.
 
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