I don't think you understand Activision's brand of pressure. Companies usually get a decent amount of freedom to develop new concepts, with the hope that the creativity of the studio will turn into something milkable. If Blur had succeeded, you bet your ass the creative freedom would have been gone for Blur 2.
Activision also focuses many studios on their profitable projects. Sony may have closed a couple studios in the last few years, but they still have umpteen studios working on different things, while Activision has a ridiculous proportion of their studios cranking out Call of Duty.
With that said, Bungie has way too much clout for this to really harm Destiny. I'd like to believe that Activision will continue to let Bundie dictate the direction as the franchise goes on. I'm sure they view the investment as "invest x million dollars a year, forget about it, get ridiculous amount of profit over 10 years".
