Following last week’s announcement that Bungie would be cutting its business ties with Activision and taking sole control of Destiny 2, fans and players rejoiced that the studio was finally out from under the proverbial thumb of the publisher that many saw as the source of many of the game’s more maligned design decisions. According to a recent piece from Polygon, however, the split might not be entirely worth celebrating just yet.
The article points out that “while Bungie ended its partnership with Activision, Destiny 2 is still a legacy product designed and launched as part of a deal that no longer exists,” and as such, the studio “could be tempted to bring Destiny 2’s run to an early end once it has satisfied all of its existing promises.” Although Bungie has confirmed that it plans to deliver on all of the content updates laid out in its 2019 roadmap, the studio has been rather vague on what lies beyond.
In addition, the article warns of the potential influence of NetEase on Bungie’s future endeavors, as the Chinese company — which achieved recent notoriety for its partnership with Blizzard to create Diablo Immortal but in fact has been partnered with Blizzard for over a decade on multiple projects — “invested $100 million in Bungie in June 2018,” and it’s this funding, in part, that is allowing Bungie to pull away from Activision’s grasp. Of course, as the article itself notes, just because NetEase has a stake in Bungie doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to meddle in the studio’s affairs, and it’s probably too early to be jumping to any conclusions.
The takeaway here seems to be that, although the Bungie-Activision split could be just the good news that it’s been hailed as so far, it may have some negative effects on the future of Destiny 2 and, if it comes to that, Destiny 3 or whatever else Bungie has in store for the future. How exactly the effects of the separation will ultimately materialize, however, we’ll just have to wait and see.
