Giant Bomb journalist Jeff Grubb and Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier shared details about Bungie’s current projects amid mass layoffs announced the day before.
Image source: Bungie
As part of the new cuts, Bungie will say goodbye to 220 employees, and will integrate another 155 people into Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), which will transfer the action game in the new sci-fi universe, which was in an early stage.
As part of the Game Mess Mornings podcast, Grubb said that Destiny 2 will continue to receive new content, but Bungie will move away from releasing large add-ons like The Final Shape in favor of less expensive content packs.
Grubb claims that despite the high ratings, The Final Shape’s release did not meet Bungie’s expectations in terms of player activity
According to Grubb, Bungie has also canceled (or at least shelved) development of a project codenamed Payback, which the studio called “the next Destiny” but not Destiny 3.
Schreier clarified on his microblog that Payback was hiding a certain offshoot of Destiny, which was at a very early stage of development on the eve of its cancellation. The game stopped production some time ago (before the layoffs).
As for Marathon, Bungie has “sky-high” hopes for the PvP evacuation shooter, Grubb says. The studio allegedly still plans to release the game during 2025.
Grubb is also confident that Bungie, as a result of deepening integration with SIE, will lose its former autonomy and will stand on par with other Sony studios, commanded by PlayStation head Hermen Hulst.