It has been a hectic week for Bungie. Not only did they announce that they are ending active development on Destiny 2, but it was also reported that the team isn’t working on Destiny 3. Unsurprisingly, fans are upset and are trying to persuade Sony to greenlight the game.
According to journalist Jason Schreier, the reason Bungie didn’t immediately start working on Destiny 3 right after the launch of The Final Shape for Destiny 2 – and presumably the reason they still aren’t working on right now – comed down to the project just being too expensive.
And so fans have taken to change.org to create a petition in the hopes of getting Sony to cough up the cash to get Destiny 3 into active development.
At the time of writing, the petition is sitting at just over 137k signatures.
“The Destiny franchise has captivated millions of gamers around the world with its immersive universe, thrilling gameplay, and strong sense of community,” says the petition. “However, with the end of updates for Destiny 2, it’s time to take the next step and keep this beloved series thriving. That step is the development of Destiny 3.”
Bungie just recently released Marathon, another live-service multiplayer shooter which seems to be struggling in terms of players, but Bungie have commited to sticking with it and believe that it can gradually build a bigger and bigger audience.
“I have played destiny since the alpha in 2014, I have been here for every expansion, usually buying the most expensive version so I could get all the content once it came out,” said Collin of Salt Lake City in the petition commens. “This franchise has helped me make friends that I never would have met, and got me through really tough times in my life. I dont want this world to end with Destiny 2 there’s so many more stories and memories to be made if Bungie is given the time, resources, and right leadership to make a Destiny 3.”
Unfortunately, Jason Schreier’s reporting says Bungie is expecting a wave of layoffs, the scope of which is unknown. And recently, Sony put a second impairment against Bungie, indicating that they believe they overpaid for Bungie by a total of around $765 million.
Basically, it seems like Bungie isn’t in a great position right now. Indeed, reports over the years have hinted toward leaderships and management problems within the studio.
But I agree with the petition. Destiny 3 is likely Bungie’s best change to survive, which is why it’s horrible they find themselves in a weird place where they can’t make their biggest, most obvious money-earner because of…well, money.
Schreier’s reporting states that the studio currently has no other project greenlit, either, so even if they decided on something right this moment, given the length of typical triple-A game development we won’t see anything new from Bungie until after 2030.
That’s a lot of pressure on Marathon to perform.
