Solo Traveller

After eight years, Bungie and Activision are splitting up. Where does Destiny go from here?

There were cheers, apparently, when Bungie management told an all-hands studio meeting that it was parting ways with Activision. From the outside looking in, it’s easy to imagine why. The divorce settlement sees Bungie, which owns the Destiny IP under the terms of the ten-year deal signed in 2010, gain independent publishing rights to its shared-world shooter. It now has full creative control of a game whose near-decade in existence has been fraught with problems. No wonder that, as one source told Kotaku, champagne corks were popping.

Yet it may not be as simple as that. There is much to celebrate about the notion of a 700-person studio, which gave the world Halo and Destiny, now being one of the biggest indie developers on the planet. Yet there is much to be concerned about, too. The Destiny story has always been a bit of a mess, and no doubt its hitherto publisher has had a hand in its chequered past. But the studio has been culpable as well, and it must embark on the next chapter in its grand galaxial adventure with no little caution. The real story in all this is not that Bungie has regained its independence; it’s that Activision was willing to walk away.