Kotaku: Bungie & Activision splitting up

Well, then...

Huge news. Hopefully this means good things for Destiny in the future.

For those curious about PC Destiny 2...

I'm seeing people stoked about this and like I guess I understand but Activision ain't the ones who have made weird dumb decisions for Destiny so cool the jets a bit.

Maybe I'll play Destiny now? Crazy turn of events but cant be that surprising really.

Future divorce wishlist:

EA/Bioware

Nintendo/Retro

Activision/Blizzard

I wonder if that means the Destiny name isn't worth much, or is it the fact that it wouldn't be worth anything without the bungie name attached.

I wonder if we'll see more destiny right away. If it isn't doing gangbusters will a newly independent Bungie jump int Destiny 3?

Do we see Bungie going to an EA, or in a crazy turn of events back to Microsoft?

Yeah, having read how the relationship was between the two in Jason Schreiers book, Activision gave Bungie plenty of rope and time with that franchise and Bungie got a big ego about themselves and made some truly terrible decisions. Also I saw Jason tweet out the above and I swear that very same line is in his book when Bungie left Microsoft. They signed a banner of independence and hung it on the wall.

But everyone likes the narrative that Activision are evil and vile and so this can only be good for Bungie.

I wonder if ppl would get excited for another Bungie Halo. Never been much of a fan of Bungie or Halo but I feel like they need each other and so does Microsoft.

So what do we say when even more microtransactions get added to the game?

$10 says Destiny 3 has less content then launch Destiny 1.

EDIT: Additional $5 bet that Sparrow Racing is back

That's crazy!

"They're an indie company guys, they need them to keep the game going"

It's always nice to see a company getting to keep its own IP when something like this happens. That's good for the players and good for the people who make the game.

But, yeah. Activision weren't the ones making making all the decisions for Destiny's development.

Even if Activision wanted the Destiny IP, it was never theirs. Bungie has owned it from day one.

@efesell: Activision forced Bungie to a DLC schedule that actively hurt Destiny 1 (can't speak for Destiny 2 since I didn't play it). I don't put all of Destinys issues at Activisons feet, but they certainly the reason for some of the big ones.

The style of game that Destiny wants to be needs a pretty tight schedule to maintain interest so it's a little bit of digging your own graves.

Even considering the schedule the old reports on how insanely bad the Destiny workflow was (is still?) is pretty hard to ignore.

Either way people should just be wary of conveniently placing all of their woes with Destiny on Activision now that the door is hitting them on the way out.

Activision didn't force Bungie to do anything, other than adhering to the contract. The overall deal (at least as it was presented/leaked) was not forced on Bungie. Bungie in 2010 could write their own ticket. That Bungie was unable live up to that is 100% their fault.

The best thing about this change is that the "Activision excuse" is now gone. Every screwup from here on out is Bungie's and Bungie's alone. Activision was never the problem with Destiny.

This can only be good news for Bungie, especially given the way they appear to be handling Blizzard lately. I wouldn't want Activision anywhere near my IP if I had my way.

It's sad to see what they're doing to Blizzard at this point.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but all those companies you listed own the developer outright, whereas the case with Activision/Bungie was always meant to be a temporary (10 year) exclusive publishing contract. Bioware will not separate from EA, unless EA decides to sell them outright, or let them loose for whatever reason.

well ain't that some shit. curious to see where this takes destiny (haven't played the game ever so i have no skin in this). i wonder if the damage is already done, or if they make radical changes (for better or worse).

So...instead of half-baked Halo games and half-baked Destiny games, can we get back to amazing Halo games, now?

...I know...wishful thinking...

@ballsleon: Sparrow racing is my favorite competitive Destiny activity...as a huge fan of Halo, this fact is a bummer.

If the two are splitting up because Destiny 2 sold lower than expectations, than Activision truly is the Nicki Minaj of publishing games.

So, any chance for Bungie to go indie and put out Oni 2?

Was there prior knowledge that this was in the cards or did it just happen out of the blue? Either way, this is seismic.

@rejizzle: IO Interactive was owned by Square Enix and now they are independent. Yes these divorces will probably never happen but there is a possibility.

Yippii suck it Michael Transactions.

On a more serious note i am wondering how much this would change the monetisation of this game.

@soulcake: I imagine very little, enough of the player base has liked what Bungie has done with cosmetic engrams at this point it really isent a big deal and is kinda ] rare to see people who play the game regularly spend money in-game on cosmetic stuff

Brangelina first, now Bungivision? Be still my heart.

Bungie have burnt a lot of good will over the years for me. I'd probably care more if Activision kept the IP just to force them to make something new again.

@rand0mzer00: https://www.engadget.com/2010/04/29/bungie-enters-10-year-partnership-with-activision/

This was the deal from the beginning. It was a 10 year exclusive ip rights kinda thing.

I bet $1 they will still do ps4 and ps5 boot licking. Michael Transactions boots.'

Bring back Neversoft.

This is great news. The farther away talented people get from the likes of Activision and EA the better.

Seems like it might be better for Bungie to create a new IP rather than trying to fix a series that's very divisive. There's nothing unique to Destiny that they can't do elsewhere... the lore is generic as hell, fight the darkness with the light, SMH.

How on earth did they pull that off ? I can't imagine Activision were the ones to initiate the deal, but if they were why would they want give away the IP ? But then again if Bungie pushed for this how could they afford to buy out the IP ? If it actually has the kinda value that would make them want to buy it then Activision sure as hell wouldn't make it cheap, and if it doesn't then.. why ? I'm just... what ?!

I guess we can hope and dream about this being a scenario were Bungie has been forced to hold back due to time restrictions, while Activision doesn't realize there's more water in the well, and then they'll be able to bring out the big guns being their own publisher. But that seems like quite a pipe dream.

I keep reading this headline as if Kotaku is part of the break up.

You could say this happening was almost the work of... fate.

Make a new game called Destiny: Combat Evolved that is just Halo shooting and guns and enemies.

Oh, looks like this was a thread!

I can't really see this being a good thing for Bungie, it seems more like Activision cutting them loose than Bungie gaining independence. I don't follow Destiny that well, but what I've heard seems to be that the problems with it were Bungie's fault generally. I guess Destiny 3 will be the proof one way or another.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but I thought Bungie always owned the Destiny IP? So by that logic, doesn't that mean it wasnt Activision's to give away? I know Activision had publishing rights, but wasn't that only for 10 years, that would be over in 2020 anyway? I guess I'm not seeing the big deal unless I'm missing something.

You're not misunderstanding. Bungie retained ownership of any IP they developed and the publishing agreement was due to expire in April 2020 or thereabouts, but bailing out of any contractual agreement early is still notable. And, of course, you'd assume they'd sign another deal if things were going reasonably well.

But is it shocking? Not really. We already knew Activision was unhappy with Destiny sales. Plus, Bungie got a bunch of cash from selling 10% of the company to a Chinese publisher, so they seemed likely to be thinking about going solo again.

Nice, now they can make a new Myth

They should make a Destiny type game, but good.

@frytup: Everyone would do well to remember the $100m they've taken from Netease and then remember how bad of a reputation Netease has in its home country of China.

If you think Activision like their microtransactions, you should check out what Netease think of them.

@frodobaggins: So they should make warframe 2?

I am interested to see where the Destiny franchise goes from here - I guess we will truly see if it was solely Activision forcing micro-transactions and anti-consumer practices in to Destiny 2, or if Bungie played a part in that also. It's also interesting to see that Destiny 2 will remain on Battle.Net, but I do wonder if it will come to other PC based digital storefront's like Steam or Epic Store?

I'm curious if the fact that both Destiny and Destiny 2 both seemed to have been rushed out to meet release dates and were then "fixed" with 1 year later were a purely Activision requirement or was it a Bungie decision?

Is the 3 year cycle for Destiny now over?

Great stuff, here's hoping fewer cooks makes for a tastier broth...

@frytup: Okay, that all makes sense then! Thanks! And I totally get that ending the deal early is definitely noteworthy, sorry for implying it wasn't. I guess more specifically, I thought I had something wrong overall after seeing some people shocked stating things like "Activision let them keep Destiny!?" and even the original tweet by Schreier of all people implies that it was in doubt, which had me confused and thinking I fundamentally misunderstood something with regards to Destiny's ownership of the IP.

I'm not a fan of Halo or Destiny and even I am happy for Bungie getting out from underneath Activision. I would like to hope Blizzard would be possibly next but Activision owns them so unless there is some really good financial reasoning to do so or Blizzard is not worth keeping around I don't think that will happen till that company is rung dry.