Well…that happened. In a surprise announcement that sent shockwaves throughout the gaming world, Bungie has announced that not only are they breaking away from Activision, they’re keeping the rights of Destiny to themselves. This is a huge move, as Bungie has been with Activision since 2010, and as such, they’ve relied on them for a lot. But now, it seems that they’ve got what they need to do everything on their own without supervision. They made a full statement about the breakaway on their website.
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.
They said that the split is due in part to listening to the community and believing that they can now deliver their own content for the game without the overseeing of Activision. They do promise though that the content planned for this year will still come:
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.
This is a huge blow to Activision, as their other major company, Blizzard, is in dire straights according to reports, so losing Bungie and its big IP are going to be something they need to recover from and quickly.
