As the developer of Destiny 2, Bungie, has announced, they are partnering with the Chinese company NetEase to develop a new game franchise that has nothing to do with Destiny.
Bungie is not just about Destiny anymore: As Bungie announced a few hours ago in a statement, they have formed a partnership with the Chinese company NetEase to “build new worlds.” In addition to Destiny, they want to create and maintain other worlds.
What will happen to Destiny 2? Bungie assures that there will be no impact on Destiny 2. They are continuing to work with Activision on the franchise. They have exciting plans that will be announced in the coming weeks.
Bungie goes independent and gets well paid for it
Are they allowed to do that? Yes, there were specific clauses in the contract with Activision that allowed Bungie to develop other games after a set period, given certain conditions were met. This was clearly defined in the original version of the contract (via assets.documents.cloud), as far as we know. But we don’t know if the contract is current.
Bungie wants to emancipate itself: One of Bungie’s main goals is to publish games independently. A staff member from the Wall Street Journal reported this on Twitter. Bungie does not want to be entirely dependent on Activision Blizzard. The goal is to decide how to create worlds and what business model to use. Bungie wants to become a company that manages various franchises.
Receiving 100 million US dollars: Bungie has received an investment of 100 million dollars from NetEase to implement these plans.
NetEase: The developer of “Revelation Online” and much more
Who is NetEase? NetEase is an expert in MMOs and mobile games. In China, they are Blizzard’s partner and publish games like Overwatch, Diablo 3, or WoW there. Here in the West, they are mainly known for “Revelation Online,” an Asian MMORPG that has seen only moderate success. However, in China, they operate incredibly successful games like “Fantasy Westward Journey Online 2.”
What kind of new non-Destiny game could emerge?
What kind of games could Bungie make for them? Most likely MMO shooters – and with the business model, it sounds like “Free2Play” MMOs or games-as-a-service. It is hard to imagine Bungie starting with mobile MMOs: Bungie is primarily a company for PS4 and Xbox One. It would hardly make sense for Bungie to work on anything other than shooters. But the exact details are supposed to be revealed later.
Perhaps a dream will come true
This is particularly exciting: There is a new MMO technology, SpatialOS. The company behind the technology is valued at 1 billion US dollars after investments. The inventor of this technology dreams of creating vast online worlds. He has explicitly stated that it would be his greatest dream to turn Destiny into a massive, living universe.
What does NetEase have to do with it? NetEase entered into a partnership with the company of this Destiny fan in February 2018. Perhaps in the future, we will hear that Bungie is using this insane technology in their own games. In any case, NetEase apparently has significant ambitions in the area of “living worlds” and “online gaming” – and thanks to mobile MMOs, they apparently have the resources to afford it. From NetEase’s perspective, they have now:
- acquired the technology for massive MMO worlds with SpatialOS
- and partnered with Bungie, the developer who can create these worlds
But that is currently speculation.
How will fans of Destiny 2 likely react?
Destiny 2 at a crossroads: But it will probably take years before we, as players, really see any of this. Right now, Bungie has to deal with the response from Destiny fans. After all, Destiny 2 is currently at a turning point with the reveal of “Destiny 2 Comet” in the coming days.
