The “High Moon Studios” were assigned in 2015 by Activision Blizzard as a support studio to Bungie’s partners to work on Destiny and Destiny 2. Now, it is known what they are doing after separating from Activision Blizzard and Bungie: They are assisting with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.
What kind of studio is this? The “High Moon Studios” were formerly known as “Sammy Studios” and were founded in Carlsbad, California.
They are known for their work on the Transformers games between 2010 and 2012. Those were still released under their own name.
In May 2015, it was publicly revealed that High Moon Studios is actively working on Destiny. The studio revealed itself through a job advertisement on their homepage. They were looking for someone with a passionate enthusiasm for the Destiny universe.
Shortly thereafter, High Moon Studios officially announced that they are working on Destiny with their 100 employees.
The celebrated campaign made by Forsaken
What was strange about Destiny: Even though High Moon Studios was recruited in 2015 as a support studio for Bungie, their actual work was consciously recognized in public only really in 2018.
Because it became clear there:
- High Moon Studios had primarily developed the campaign for the Destiny 2 expansion “Forsaken” – that was the campaign about the Barons
- While another support studio from Activision Blizzard, Vicarious Visions, took over the PC port
Port and campaign were perceived as successful by fans.
After the end of the partnership, Activision laid off some employees
The idea behind it was: Activision Blizzard wanted to solve Bungie’s content problem with the “High Moon Studio”. Because they could not produce content for Destiny as fast as the fans were consuming it. Bungie had about 700 employees, but that was still not enough.
But as soon as the partnership started, it also ended. Because in January 2019, Activision Blizzard and Bungie announced that they would go separate ways. This also eliminated the support studios. Bungie is back on its own.
Also as a result of this separation, Activision Blizzard laid off 800 employees in February 2019, including some employees of High Moon Studios.
Next mission: Call of Duty
What are they doing now? As it has now been revealed, Activision Blizzard has found a new use for the studio. They are assisting Infinity Ward in the development of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Along with Beenox and Raven Software, High Moon Studios are also involved in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. They are supposed to provide overall support there.
The studio has experience with Call of Duty. In 2014, they developed the “Xbox 360” and “PS3” versions for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.
