Bungie, the game developer and studio that gave us the Halo franchise and the more recent Destiny series, is breaking up with its long-time partner and publisher, Activision. The announcement, which was a surprise to many gamers and developers in the industry, was published via Bungie’s official page and Activision official Twitter account.
As a recap, Bungie and Activision first entered into a partnership back in 2010, just after the former had sold all of its rights to the Halo franchise to Microsoft. Under a new publisher, Bungie went on to create, develop and release Destiny back in 2014 and its sequel, Destiny 2, three years later.
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
Moving forward, it looks like Bungie will still retain all the rights to Destiny 2, and will continue the development of the IP. What’s not clear is whether or not Bungie intends to develop its own launcher, or if it will seek out another partnership with another digital platform.
What’s also unclear is what exactly caused the split between the two big names of industry, but many fans suspect one of the reasons was Activision’s decision to make Destiny 2 more appealing to mainstream players.
Unfortunately, that decision nearly put Bungie’s game in jeopardy, and forced the developer to completely rework the game with Forsaken, the game’s first major expansion which launched in September last year.
(Source: Bungie via The Verge, Twitter // Image source: Games Radar)
