LogInBut there was a spin-off.
Bungie
Bungie, the developer of Destiny, has recently announced a new round of layoffs, which affected 220 employees – around 17% of its workforce. Discussing the news, insider Jeff Grubb mentioned Payback, "the next Destiny," a game that was canceled and could potentially be a sequel to the series.
However, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier denied its connection to Destiny 3, saying "it was never in development," according to people familiar, and Payback was actually a spin-off, which doesn't have anything to do with the job cuts as it was dropped "a while ago." He promised to talk more about it soon.
The layoffs were not as sudden as they might seem, former Bungie employees told Game File, it had been planned "for months," before The Final Shape expansion launched. While well-received by fans, it boosted concurrent players as much as Lightfall, Grubb said, which is a failure still because Bungie spent much more time on it, so the decline was much faster.
Overall, the studio kept losing money, which, I'm sure, didn't make Sony, who bought it in 2022, happy. "I think Sony overpaid for Bungie," said one of the former insiders. "I think Bungie sold things they were just not able to deliver."
So now Sony Interactive Entertainment seemingly wants to take the matter into its own hands, and its CEO Hermen Hulst now runs the studio, according to Grubb.
How will it affect the development? We'll have to see. Join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Reddit, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.