After Destiny 2 was acquired by PlayStation manufacturer Sony in a legendary deal in 2022, many hoped that new projects would emerge as a result. And yes, this has now been confirmed by a developer. MeinMMO will tell you what is currently known and also what you might not like.
What kind of deal is it? In 2022, Bungie, the developer and creator of Destiny 2, was purchased by PlayStation manufacturer Sony for 3.6 billion US dollars. Bungie intentionally preserved its independence and creative freedom in this deal.
As Sony stated at the time, Bungie’s new direction as an independent subsidiary will lead to a “multi-platform studio” with the option to release games on their own.
However, in the minds of gamers, the merger immediately sparked hopes for a vast Destiny universe, where in addition to Destiny 2, there would be more multiplayer games from Bungie for all platforms, as well as finally a Destiny series or movie.
But until now, this has all been mere speculation, as it had never been confirmed that alongside the continuation of Destiny 2 in the DLCs “Lightfall” and “The Final Shape”, additional projects were actually planned. That has now changed.
Speaking of “Lightfall”: At the Game Awards 2022, Bungie presented a new gameplay trailer for the new Darkness ability “Strand”:
Developer confirms multiple projects: Up until recently, there were only a few job descriptions from Bungie that suggested plans for new projects were already in the works behind the scenes.
But now, the Creative Lead of Bungie’s Season team, Tom Farnsworth, has officially confirmed this on Twitter, stating that they are “working on a number of unannounced projects with the support of Sony.”
Could be comedic, quirky, or visually inspired
What is currently known: It is certain that Bungie wants to expand beyond the Destiny franchise to solidify its position in the global market. There is increasing talk of a “Destiny universe” that they want to establish with the help of PlayStation manufacturer Sony.
The AAA studio aims to expand its portfolio of game titles to offer new stories and experiences to the community in the future (statement via bungie.com). They want to create “a smaller game in a larger studio.” However, they have always emphasized that they do not plan to neglect Destiny in the foreseeable future.
This is what has leaked so far:
- Partnership with NetEase
- There is a 100 million US dollar partnership with NetEase, the developer of “Revelation Online”. At the time, it was said that they wanted to become an “entertainment company that supports multiple worlds simultaneously.” NetEase is a specialist in MMOs and mobile games.
- Matter patent
- A patent application for computer game software and online entertainment services was registered by Bungie in 2018 under the name “Matter”.
- Comedic game?
- Several job postings revealed that the developer is also looking for a game leader, or an “incubation gameplay lead,” for a game with “comedic, lighthearted, and quirky characters” (via pcgamesn.com).
- Extraction shooter like Escape from Tarkov
- In October 2022, industry insiders Tom Henderson and Jeff Grubb leaked that Bungie would likely reboot its old Marathon IP as an extraction-based FPS with PvPvE experience. However, neither provided concrete evidence for this.
- Another free-to-play game with live service
- Further job postings indicated that the company is likely working on a game that combines live service and free-to-play once again. This seems to at least align with the Marathon rumors.
- Third-person action
- Instead of first-person mode, like in Destiny 2, a third-person game in a new genre was recently mentioned. One of the job postings states: “Are you thrilled to help build an all-new third-person action game and expand Bungie’s best-in-class gameplay into a new genre?”.
New game on old engine
This might not please Destiny fans: One thing could dampen the excitement of long-time Destiny fans and players regarding Bungie’s new projects. From the job postings, it also became clear that the proprietary Tiger Engine of Destiny 2 could still be the foundation for future titles.
It allows multithreading and cross-platform development and offers a segregation of the codebase into layers to decouple engine functionality from game logic. According to Bungie, the engine also supports all advanced technologies they want to develop in the future. Thus, it also applies to the upcoming projects of the AAA studio.
This information about the Tiger Engine comes from TheGamePost, where a job posting was recently captured via screenshot, promoting the “creation and maintenance of networked gameplay systems, workflows, and tools in Bungie’s Tiger Engine”.
Furthermore, it states the “ability to direct activities, gameplay, bugs, and workflows within Bungie’s Tiger Engine at a senior engineer level” or “We are seeking someone to help us port our internal AAA engine (Tiger) to mobile devices” (via bungie.net).
Currently, many players are anything but satisfied with the engine. They blame the system for many legacy issues, bugs, and problems in the game. Bungie has also admitted in the past that the aging Tiger Engine has blocked development at times and led to issues that took longer to resolve.
A new engine, however, makes little sense: However, switching to a completely new engine is not easily feasible. The reason is simple: Over the years, Bungie’s developers have gained enormous expertise on this development platform.
Instead of retraining all the involved developers on how to work in a new engine, they are instead investing in an upgraded version of the known system.
Bungie has already implemented this in recent months. As stated before the release of the Witch Queen DLC, the system under the hood has been continuously updated to keep pace with new features and systems.
- They have tried to dispose of much of the old “spaghetti code”.
- Update times have been significantly reduced, often to just 15 minutes. Additionally, the servers do not always need to go offline for an update anymore.
The look also improved with Witch Queen: When the “Witch Queen” DLC went live, it was visually apparent that things had changed significantly in Destiny 2. So it was also visible that significant adjustments were made behind the scenes.
For example, the fire effects during mockery changed to more realistic “lava splatters,” environments received sharper, better details, and much more beautiful lighting effects were integrated in many places.
When could one of the projects go live? Bungie CEO Pete Parsons stated in 2019 in an interview with IGN that the company plans to release a new non-Destiny game by 2025. And not only that. They also plan to “become one of the world’s best entertainment companies by 2025,” as Parsons emphasized back then.
Partner Sony has already made headline-grabbing statements. They plan to release 10 service games by 2026 and Bungie is supposed to assist with this.
Are you curious whether Bungie will be able to put their ambitious plans into action? And what would interest you more? The future of Destiny 2 or a completely new MMO from Bungie? Feel free to let us know in the comments.
Destiny fans can actually watch the first part of the fan-made mini-series “Ace” since yesterday:
