Announced January 10th, 2019, Bungie and Activision have gone their separate ways. Bungie still holds the rights to Destiny, naturally, and will self-publish for the foreseeable future. After years of tension between the two, Bungie informed it’s staff in a meeting. Employees cheered and popped champagne, though this is also similar to when Bungie and Microsoft split when Halo was still in their hands. You can read Bungie’s official blog post on the matter here.

Questions I Still Have

Now with the influence of Activision gone, how will this effect microtransactions?

I almost have to assume that some of the options will get better treatment. While it takes a while to earn the necessary in-game currencies to purchase, we could potentially see a better economy overall for purchasing old cosmetics, at the very least.

Will this change the roadmap of DLC and seasonal events?

According the blog post, Bungie plans on continuing with the current roadmap, and are looking forward to releasing more seasonal experiences in the coming months. And, potentially, surprising the community with exciting announcements about what lies beyond.

Is there a chance that we forego a new Destiny title in favor of continuing on with what Destiny 2 has laid out?

While I would personally love to see Destiny 2 without ever seeing a Destiny 3, the odds of that are low. I still see a new title in the future, though with these developments, I could see that title being pushed back a year, or maybe even two. Now that the brutal schedule dictated by Activision (requiring a major DLC or new title every fall) is off the books, I can see Destiny 3 getting some much-needed polish that both previous installments could have used.

Does this change anything with the game?

Personally, I don’t believe that it does. Remember, aside from microtransactions and the release schedule, Bungie is still the one to blame for poor balance and a lack of content. Or even, the extensive grind required to level up, like in the recent Black Armory expansion. I was burned already on Destiny, where I spent 3 years chasing the rabbit. I hated all but a few of those months, usually after a recent DLC released, and before Bungie had a chance to “balance” everything and screw it back up. I’ve also seen the same mistakes repeated, again and again. I hold no hopes that this will improve anything other than the community’s attitude in the next few months. If you want to check on that, just visit the DestinyTheGame subreddit.

For Activision, it’s a been a rough year. They recently lost a couple of executives, have been cutting costs at Blizzard, and now that their super franchises (Skylanders and Destiny) list has shrunk, the company is out of some pretty huge options. Additionally, two other Activision studios, High Moon and Vicarious Visions, had been working on expansions and content for Destiny 2, though it remains unclear what will happen to that content.

For Bungie, who recently was able to start development on a new game thanks to a NetEase investment of $100 million, we’ll see where they are able to make their next steps in gaming. If you’re like me, maybe you hold some hope that this will improve things for them. I do miss the old Bungie.