this same year that Bungie announced
a ten-year publishing deal with
Activision to create a new ambitious
IP, which of course would materialise
as Destiny.Cash crash
We can only speculate as to the exact
reason for the publishing contract
being terminated early, but there
could be many different reasons as to
why that might happen. One theory is
simply that Activision didn’t deem the
Destiny franchise profitable enough.
Only last August it confirmed as
much in an earnings call, reported on
Kotaku, that sales were disappointing.
At the time this appeared to cause
a bit of friction with Bungie itself,
with Destiny’s director Luke Smith
responding via Twitter that, “We are
not disappointed with Forsaken. We
set out to build a game that Destiny
players would love, and at Bungie, we
love too.” Smith continued: “Building
Destiny for players who love it is andwill remain our focus going forward.”
It’s interesting to note that almost
immediately after the announcement,
Microsoft’s own vice-president of
gaming, Phil Spencer, took to Twitter
to remark on the situation. “Looking
forward to a very bright future working
with one of my favourite independent
studios on one of my favourite
franchises. Excited to see how they
continue to grow and evolve Destiny.”
Whether this hints at something else
going on behind the scenes between
Bungie and Microsoft is unclear,
but that won’t stop the rumour millfrom spinning wildly. And let’s face
it, who wouldn’t love to see an old
partnership, one that resulted in
Halo, rekindled?
Phil Spencer wasn’t the only
person in the games industry to
comment on the news. Epic Games
vice president Mark Rein simply said,
“Wow, congratulations @Bungie!”
Rami Ismail, an indie developer and
co-founder of indie games studio
Vlambeer, said, “With all due respect
to Activision, but I’m an indie at
heart, and I’m such a huge fan of
Destiny and Bungie and everyone
there. I might have jumped up from
my chair reading the news. This is the
coolest games news in years. I did
jump up from my chair.” Fans of the
series were just as congratulatory
on social media.
It doesn’t take a ‘wizard from the
Moon’ to know the reasons behind this
sentiment or why it’s such a big deal.
Both Bungie and Activision were
criticised for the development and“Buildin Destiny
for players who
love it is and will
remain our focus
oin forward”
ABOVE Forsaken
was a success
for Bungie and
helped them
to further
understand what
the fans want.
OXM
SAYSINSIDER DESTINY
So are we going to see
Destiny 3? Who knows? (Are
we going to see Romancing
The Stone 3, for that matter.)
I think we will – in fact I can’t
see why it wouldn’t happen if
there was demand for the
game, which there clearly is.
Remember: you call the shots.Russell
LewinDestiny is an awesome
game, and all credit to
Activision for getting behind
it, but it’s also exciting to see
Bungie take full creative
control of its future projects- whether that’s more
Destiny, or whatever the hell
Matter might be...
Chris
BurkeDestiny is a huge franchise
and without Activision
around to deal with the
publishing side of things,
Bungie will have to do this
itself. Which means it’s
probably got a lot to learn
to make sure Destiny
remains a success.Adam
Bryant010 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE