• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Bungie Splits With Activision, Keeps Destiny

Corrik

Member
Bungie did pretty much the same thing with Microsoft. I am actually surprised they wanted to keep Destiny though as they got bored of making Halos. Destiny is approaching about the same level of commitment as Halo was at this point.

Usually Bungie would get upset they were forced to sequels instead of allowed to create new IPs.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Bungie did pretty much the same thing with Microsoft. I am actually surprised they wanted to keep Destiny though as they got bored of making Halos. Destiny is approaching about the same level of commitment as Halo was at this point.

Usually Bungie would get upset they were forced to sequels instead of allowed to create new IPs.

Was it possibly about not having control over their own IP as well with the whole Halo thing? And the direction the series was headed just seemed a shell of the original "soul" the series had?
 

LordOfChaos

Member
Interesting. Though at this point is Destiny worth keeping? Kinda rather see them move on to something else..


To me it's at least worth seeing what Bungie can do with it unshackled. Bungie did make Halo 1-3, they're capable of good storytelling, and the lore of Destiny is pretty great, just not shown in-game very well. Hopefully they take the time to make 3 really good at launch.
 

Mooreberg

Member
Bungie did pretty much the same thing with Microsoft. I am actually surprised they wanted to keep Destiny though as they got bored of making Halos. Destiny is approaching about the same level of commitment as Halo was at this point.

Usually Bungie would get upset they were forced to sequels instead of allowed to create new IPs.
The amount of money a developer can make while owned by a platform holder, working on an exclusive franchise, is quite a bit lower than what we've seen stuff like GTA, Fortnite, Call of Duty, etc. accomplish. One the flip side, something like the $100M Sony Santa Monica burned in between God of War games on a cancelled project would have sunk most independent studios.

Destiny is, in theory, a potential goldmine if it is handled correctly. It just hasn't been handled super well up to this point. Clearly, things were coming in well enough below expectations for Activision to be ok with this split in the first place. Bungie didn't seem to be up to the task at delivering the volume of revenue that Activision wanted each year at price/content ratio that kept customers happy. Does this improve dramatically with Activision out of the picture? Maybe the base product launches better without having to hit a certain deadline, but I don't see a ton improving with the "first year" expansions (the stuff before Taken King and Forsaken) and I have a hard time believing any currently existing microtransactions will stop existing. Activision's interest made sense - it was another big shooter franchise that wasn't going to be directly competing wit COD (which sells based on MP, while Destiny is more focused on co-op and campaign style content). But pumping out content that requires design and iteration is a lot harder than just releasing new maps every couple of months, which Bungie was excellent at with Halo 3. It would make perfect sense that "Destiny 3" is the main focus over a new franchise, I just wonder what the plan is if it doesn't pan out drastically better than what is currently going on with Destiny 2. They had the market to themselves in 2014, but that isn't happening again unless publishers once again exhibit dreadful planning for the next hardware cycle transition.
"
 

ethomaz

Banned
I don't understand what you mean by this, care to elaborate?
Destiny was bigger than Halo at it peak... it had more sales, more population, more players playing the game.

How can it be other way?

I think people here have the wrong ideia how many gamers play or played Destiny.
 
Last edited:

theclaw135

Banned
The amount of money a developer can make while owned by a platform holder, working on an exclusive franchise, is quite a bit lower than what we've seen stuff like GTA, Fortnite, Call of Duty, etc. accomplish. One the flip side, something like the $100M Sony Santa Monica burned in between God of War games on a cancelled project would have sunk most independent studios.

Destiny is, in theory, a potential goldmine if it is handled correctly. It just hasn't been handled super well up to this point. Clearly, things were coming in well enough below expectations for Activision to be ok with this split in the first place. Bungie didn't seem to be up to the task at delivering the volume of revenue that Activision wanted each year at price/content ratio that kept customers happy. Does this improve dramatically with Activision out of the picture? Maybe the base product launches better without having to hit a certain deadline, but I don't see a ton improving with the "first year" expansions (the stuff before Taken King and Forsaken) and I have a hard time believing any currently existing microtransactions will stop existing. Activision's interest made sense - it was another big shooter franchise that wasn't going to be directly competing wit COD (which sells based on MP, while Destiny is more focused on co-op and campaign style content). But pumping out content that requires design and iteration is a lot harder than just releasing new maps every couple of months, which Bungie was excellent at with Halo 3. It would make perfect sense that "Destiny 3" is the main focus over a new franchise, I just wonder what the plan is if it doesn't pan out drastically better than what is currently going on with Destiny 2. They had the market to themselves in 2014, but that isn't happening again unless publishers once again exhibit dreadful planning for the next hardware cycle transition.
"

The used prices of older Destiny games doesn't look too hopeful.

Either way Activision was probably right to not devour the studio. Third party exclusivity agreements are a fiscally brilliant plan in the right hands. When you don't own the developer, you don't have to pay taxes on their share of the earnings.
 
Last edited:

Kagey K

Banned
Seems to me that Bungie has “accidentally deleted” every game since Halo 2 and got away with it.

It’s amazing that it’s still a studio today.

There is a lesson to be learned there for every leader.
 

Corrik

Member
Destiny was bigger than Halo at it peak... it had more sales, more population, more players playing the game.

How can it be other way?

I think people here have the wrong ideia how many gamers play or played Destiny.
I highly doubt this is true and that is with comparing an exclusive to a multiplatform game.
 

ethomaz

Banned
I highly doubt this is true and that is with comparing an exclusive to a multiplatform game.
Some guys thinks Destiny was a failure that nobody wanted to play.

I understand that but the reality was the completely the opposite... even Destiny 2 that had a big drop in sales, population and activity... even so it is still huge even today.
 
Last edited:

The Alien

Banned
As a game.
I kindly disagree.

As a brand, Halo was and is enormous.

As a game, maybe/maybe not (Halo 5 is still one of the best selling games this gen for X). Thinking about its height, Halo was supreme. It defined system seller. The Xbox probably wouldn't exist for the past 15 years without Halo.

Destiny is a keenly marketed, great mechanics, loot shooter in a sea of loot shooters. It sold very well, but isnt in same class as a Halo level game (whether that's Halo now or Halo 10 years ago).
 

juliotendo

Member
Halo: dead
Destiny: dead
Battlefield: dead

Call of Duty is still king baby. You can't mess with the king.

0e3.gif


I don’t know about that. I’m pretty sure the king right now is Fortnite based on what 13 year olds are playing.
 

ptuck874

Member
Bungie did pretty much the same thing with Microsoft. I am actually surprised they wanted to keep Destiny though as they got bored of making Halos. Destiny is approaching about the same level of commitment as Halo was at this point.

Usually Bungie would get upset they were forced to sequels instead of allowed to create new IPs.
post of January my man!
 

ptuck874

Member
oh wait, before I read anything else, didn't somebody say there was a chance of Microsoft buying a gaming studio the past week or so? like 2019 predictions....
I wonder if this might be playing into that?
 

cdthree

Member
oh wait, before I read anything else, didn't somebody say there was a chance of Microsoft buying a gaming studio the past week or so? like 2019 predictions....
I wonder if this might be playing into that?

More likely Bungie would like to become a quasi publisher in the future. Think Steam or Epic. Maybe even a full blown publisher. Wouldn't be hard to go back to Microsoft and offer some kind of equity deal like Tencent and Epic, imho. Both Bungie and Microsoft get what they want from the deal.
 
Last edited:

ptuck874

Member
More likely Bungie would like to become a quasi publisher in the future. Think Steam or Epic. Maybe even a full blown publisher. Wouldn't be hard to go back to Microsoft and offer some kind of equity deal like Tencent and Epic, imho. Both Bungie and Microsoft get what they want from the deal.
exactly, and microsoft can fold 343 or whoever is doing halo these days back into bungie, and give bungie the money to keep up their Destiny deal, cause they going to need that $ to do the grand things Bungie wants to do? idk
 

Pallas

Gold Member
Yup Destiny mobile is probably even more of a reality now since they took that 100m from NetEase(basically the scummyness of Activision on steroids).

This is a good point, I’ve seen a lot of people on here and other places celebrating the separation of Bungie and Activision but aren’t they potentially jumping in bed with another Activision that may be even greedier?
 
Last edited:

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
Calling it now. Their next game will probably be a Playstation and PC exclusive.

This is from an xbox gamer.

And if so, nothing of value were lost unless you are into a Halo look a like RPG Lite game.

Bungie did pretty much the same thing with Microsoft. I am actually surprised they wanted to keep Destiny though as they got bored of making Halos. Destiny is approaching about the same level of commitment as Halo was at this point.

Usually Bungie would get upset they were forced to sequels instead of allowed to create new IPs.

Funny thing is they wanted to do something new, yet makes a game that looks like the previous games they made.

Destiny is bigger than Halo ever was.
mr_chang_senor_chang_laugh_spits_milk.gif
 

Raven117

Member
And if so, nothing of value were lost unless you are into a Halo look a like RPG Lite game.



Funny thing is they wanted to do something new, yet makes a game that looks like the previous games they made.


mr_chang_senor_chang_laugh_spits_milk.gif
Don’t know why you are laughing. It’s sold more copies and made more money. So yeah, it’s bigger. (Now whether it shares the mindshare that Halo did, that we can argue).
 

Komatsu

Member
Don’t know why you are laughing. It’s sold more copies and made more money. So yeah, it’s bigger. (Now whether it shares the mindshare that Halo did, that we can argue).

Not even close. Total Halo franchise sales surpass 65 million units. Destiny 1 and 2, together, don't even reach 20 million units sold across four platforms (PS3, PS4, XBOX ONE & PC). And I'm going by VGChartz numbers for Destiny.
 
Not even close. Total Halo franchise sales surpass 65 million units. Destiny 1 and 2, together, don't even reach 20 million units sold across four platforms (PS3, PS4, XBOX ONE & PC). And I'm going by VGChartz numbers for Destiny.
Plus we're talking multiplatform versus console exclusive.
 

BlackTron

Member
Don’t know why you are laughing. It’s sold more copies and made more money. So yeah, it’s bigger. (Now whether it shares the mindshare that Halo did, that we can argue).

I remember when the Gamestop in the mall had a giant line of people waiting with baited breath for Halo 2 to come out at midnight. Master Chief stands alongside gaming heavyweights like Mario, Sonic, Cloud and Snake. Destiny isn't even in the same league.
 

Pagusas

Elden Member
It’s so sad that bungle has so many talented gameplay designers and yet is saddled with the worst narrative and production crews on the planet. The destiny series has been a case study on narrative cringe.
 

VertigoOA

Banned
Not even close. Total Halo franchise sales surpass 65 million units. Destiny 1 and 2, together, don't even reach 20 million units sold across four platforms (PS3, PS4, XBOX ONE & PC). And I'm going by VGChartz numbers for Destiny.

Destiny franchise sales are closer to 40 million, with tracking for d2 currently being 14 million. And that’s in 5 years. So yes. Destiny in bigger than halo. Halo died a long time ago.
 
Last edited:

MDSLKTR

Member
It’s so sad that bungle has so many talented gameplay designers and yet is saddled with the worst narrative and production crews on the planet. The destiny series has been a case study on narrative cringe.
For real. From making an iconic sci-fi character that Steven Spielberg wanted to take a shot at, to regurgating words like "guardian", "darkness" or "the light" every 2 minutes... How sad.
 

ethomaz

Banned
Not even close. Total Halo franchise sales surpass 65 million units. Destiny 1 and 2, together, don't even reach 20 million units sold across four platforms (PS3, PS4, XBOX ONE & PC). And I'm going by VGChartz numbers for Destiny.
Your first mistake... compare a whole franchise with 6 games to 2 games of another.

The second mistake, the most aggravating, use VGC data.

No Halo game ever sold in the same level of Destiny... neither Halo 3 the best selling and most played game in the franchise.

You can say Halo is more influential and bigger as a brand and anybody will disagree with you because Halo goes outside games only.

But Destiny is bigger than Halo... sold more and had more players playing the game... and that is what makes a game bigger than other.
 
Last edited:

ethomaz

Banned
It’s so sad that bungle has so many talented gameplay designers and yet is saddled with the worst narrative and production crews on the planet. The destiny series has been a case study on narrative cringe.
Destiny narrative is really bad.

But the lore is something out of this world... it is so fascinating and intriguing that makes it on the same level of the big sci-fi literature in the world.

Sad the lore is turned down in D2 for a better narrative :(

I miss so much the grimoire and gears lore.

The only issue with Grimoire was it not be ingame.
 
Last edited:

Pagusas

Elden Member
Destiny narrative is really bad.

But the lore is something out of this world... it is so fascinating and intriguing that makes it on the same level of the big sci-fi literature in the world.

Sad the lore is turned down in D2 for a better narrative :(

I miss so much the grimoire and gears lore.

The only issue with Grimoire was it not be ingame.

Absolutely, a more competent crew could have take that world and lore and made an amazing narrative.
 
Last edited:

ultrazilla

Member

Here's a summary:

Activision didn't own the Destiny I.P. and wanted to make it milk it dry with microtransactions:

"We did not own the underlying Destiny IP, and we do for all of our other major franchises, which we think is not just a differentiator for us in the industry," he said. "But also controlling the underlying IP gives us the chance to move in with new experiences and new engagement models which also come with new revenue streams and, structurally, higher economics when you own the IP."

As a die hard Destiny fan, I'm so glad Bungie had the brains to keep the I.P. in their ownership and got the hell out of Activision/Kotick's loot box hands.
 

Dthomp

Member
That's one way of viewing it, and I love destiny and tolerate destiny 2, but the real reason that they aren't happy with Bungie is that Bungie is planning another stupid annual pass this september instead of a full fledged DLC and based on the sales of the first AP, the writing is on the wall for D2.
 

Xiaoki

Member
As a die hard Destiny fan, I'm so glad Bungie had the brains to keep the I.P. in their ownership and got the hell out of Activision/Kotick's loot box hands.
And right into the heavily Pay To Win hands of NetEase.

Or did you forget the $100 million they threw at Bungie last June?

And without full time assistance from High Moon and Vicarious Visions will they even be able to get out content on any kind of schedule.
 

sol_bad

Member
That's one way of viewing it, and I love destiny and tolerate destiny 2, but the real reason that they aren't happy with Bungie is that Bungie is planning another stupid annual pass this september instead of a full fledged DLC and based on the sales of the first AP, the writing is on the wall for D2.

Do we know if the season pass is still the plan moving forward?
 

Pallas

Gold Member
I wonder if this was more Activision’s doing then Bungie. If Bungie wanted to get away from the Goliath known as Activision with their deadlines and requirements then why go and accept 100mil investment from
A potential worse-corporate entity in NetEase. They are all about monitizing and milking consumers on the mobile platform.
 

Dthomp

Member
Do we know if the season pass is still the plan moving forward?

I can't remember which of the destiny Youtubers I saw say that was the plan, I'll try to look for it if I get a chance. I think it may have been houndish. Said the plan was another annual pass over the big dlc.

I gotta say, I wasn't a big fan of the annual pass model, but bungie has really botched it with it. They struggle to come up with small content frequently and now we don't get big giant quality content once a year.
 

Dthomp

Member
I wonder if this was more Activision’s doing then Bungie. If Bungie wanted to get away from the Goliath known as Activision with their deadlines and requirements then why go and accept 100mil investment from
A potential worse-corporate entity in NetEase. They are all about monitizing and milking consumers on the mobile platform.

I 100% believe this was Activision over bungie. Based on the underperforming Forsaken sales mixed with even worst Annual Pass sales, along with reports that they weren't happy with Bungie needing two of Activisions other studios just to get their game going spells it out, some just like to give Bungie a pass for being mostly incompetent. I think in the end they will end up again begging for somebody to buy them up and pay them cause they have way to large a studio without the constant revenue stream to pay that many, unless all these people are just happy making money grubbing mobile games for the rest of their time there.

I really wish Activision would have gotten the rights to Destiny so they could have put it into the hands of some devs that can actually push out content. VV in charge of the whole thing with a proper studio over whatever bungie is now would have been a treat
 

Pallas

Gold Member
I 100% believe this was Activision over bungie. Based on the underperforming Forsaken sales mixed with even worst Annual Pass sales, along with reports that they weren't happy with Bungie needing two of Activisions other studios just to get their game going spells it out, some just like to give Bungie a pass for being mostly incompetent. I think in the end they will end up again begging for somebody to buy them up and pay them cause they have way to large a studio without the constant revenue stream to pay that many, unless all these people are just happy making money grubbing mobile games for the rest of their time there.

I really wish Activision would have gotten the rights to Destiny so they could have put it into the hands of some devs that can actually push out content.VV in charge of the whole thing with a proper studio over whatever bungie is now would have been a treat

That’s going to be a really unpopular opinion but I kind of agree, to an extent and may agree more depending on the outcome of all of this with NetEase.
 

Shin

Banned
Maybe they'll announce Destiny 3 soon since they own the IP and it's about that time again.
I'm too lazy to post so someone else can do the research and create a thread, 4Chan + Google + Reddit + QQera.
 

Ovek

7Member7
Maybe they'll announce Destiny 3 soon since they own the IP and it's about that time again.
I'm too lazy to post so someone else can do the research and create a thread, 4Chan + Google + Reddit + QQera.

I generally hope there isn’t a Destiny 3 there isn’t any need for it with a persistent live service game. Just update the existing game with the occasional fat DLC update with a few smaller DLC releases in between.

D2 has been such a chore to play recently I really don’t want to have my progress reset.
 
Top Bottom