The Destiny Divorce - Activision and Bungie Split Up

Bungie and Activision Blizzard started their partnership in 2010 after Bungie gained their independence from Microsoft. Activision had in place a 10-year contract with the aim of helping Bungie launch their first project after Halo – Destiny. However, this 10-year contract has now been cut short with Bungie now assuming the full publishing rights of the Destiny series. With the control of their IP completely back in their own hands, we can only wait and see how the Destiny series moves forward.

Activision’s Statement

“Today, we’re announcing plans for Bungie to assume full publishing rights and responsibilities for the Destiny franchise. Going forward, Bungie will own and develop the franchise, and Activision will increase its focus on owned IP and other projects. Activision and Bungie are committed to a seamless transition for the Destiny franchise and will continue to work closely together during the transition on behalf of the community of Destiny players around the world.” Activision’s statement appears to indicate an amicable and friendly split, but if rumours are to be believed then Bungie could not be happier with having full control of their IP. Rumour has it that champagne was popped by Bungie staff after the announcement was made.

Activision in the past have publicly called out their disappointment with the earnings of Destiny 2: Forsaken with their Chief Operating Officer Coddy Johnson said that the earnings had failed to meet their standards. A Bungie developer had fired back publicly to this statement:

Comments from Bungie

“When we first launched our partnership with Activision in 2010, the gaming industry was in a pretty different place,” Bungie wrote in its post. “As an independent studio setting out to build a brand-new experience, we wanted a partner willing to take a big leap of faith with us. We had a vision for Destiny that we believed in, but to launch a game of that magnitude, we needed the support of an established publishing partner.”

These statements and rumours only confirm the strained relationship that we’ve seen over the past 9 years of their contract. Activision expected Bungie to release a new destiny title every two years from Autumn of 2013, but as we all know, Destiny 1 shipped in 2014, with Destiny 2 having gone live in 2017, which makes Bungie a title behind Activision’s schedule. From Activision’s massively known franchise “Call of Duty”, strict production schedules are a classic for Activision releases. So in some ways, this divorce could be Activision accepting that Destiny has not panned out to be the franchise it expected from their contract.

It’s no understatement that Destiny has a long and arduous road to get to where it is today through the numerous expansions and updates during its lifetime, which at times have left us Guardians with feelings of joy at the new content but annoyed at other times for splitting the player base and letting the microtransactions slide straight to our bodies.

Tough times for Activision

Activision is truly going through rough times though, with customer backlash and a drop in their stock prices back in November after announcing Diablo Immortal for mobile phones instead of a full PC title. Additionally, they have abandoned their Skylanders franchise, so coupled with Destiny, Activision’s harem of mega-franchises has grown smaller.

The future for Bungie

A Chinese online game company called NetEase, which publishes Activision’s “Overwatch”, “Hearthstone” and “World of Warcraft” games in China has invested $100 million in Bungie for non-Destiny related IP titles.

Now that Bungie are in full control of their IP, the industry landscape allows many options for the developer to continue their development of future instalments for their baby without the need of a publisher. They now no longer need to stick to the strict release schedules which could pan out well Guardians. Let’s hope that Bungie can now restore the light to the 10 million active guardians. This will also let us see whether or not if some of the issues which plagued Destiny were from the developer or by executive meddling from the publisher.