“Rest assured we remain committed.”
Image credit: Bungie / Eurogamer
Destiny developer Bungie has issued a short statement acknowledging concern over the future of its decade-old sci-fi franchise following “recent changes” at the studio.
Those “recent changes” are, of course, the sweeping layoffs that have seen 220 Bungie staff out of a job, less than a year after a further 100 employees were let go last October. A further 155 Bungie staff are also departing the studio for roles within parent company PlayStation.
In response, Bungie has now said it remains “committed” to Destiny, though details of what’s next remain thin on the ground. There’s also no mention of the departures of key Destiny creatives Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy, who were reportedly developing a now-cancelled Destiny spin-off named Payback.
Instead, Bungie makes vague mention of a new “multi-year journey” to be had, presumably via further additions to Destiny 2.
“We know that recent changes at Bungie have created uncertainty surrounding the future of Destiny,” Bungie wrote on X. “Rest assured we remain committed to Destiny, to supporting our community with transparency, and to delivering regular updates about the game.
“We’ll be talking with you all about the future of Destiny and plans for our next multi-year journey soon. Once we plant a flag for the date, we’ll let you all know. Thank you for your patience, and we’ll see you again soon.”
Bungie typically communicates with its Destiny fanbase via a weekly blog post, which was cancelled last week as the layoffs were announced and a wave of criticism from current and former employees and the wider games industry followed.
This week, Bungie has returned to its weekly blog posts and stated there that all previously-announced Destiny 2 content plans “remain unchanged”.
“The recent changes within Bungie will present challenges that we’ll need to work through,” Bungie wrote, “so please pardon our dust over the next few weeks. We may experience a few bumps here and there, but our teams are committed to keeping you in the loop and hearing what you have to say.”
Bungie’s cuts come at a climactic moment for Destiny 2, which completed its main 10-year narrative arc this year. Planned updates will now take the shape of thrice-yearly “Episodes” with standalone stories.
The developer is also still working on its new Marathon reboot – a sci-fi extraction shooter for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S expected to arrive next year.
