Well here’s news out of left field. Juggernaut video game publisher Activision and Halo & Destiny creators Bungie have split. The partnership, starting in 2010, saw one of the videogame darling companies, I mean, they did create Halo after all, go to one of the largest publishers in gaming in Activision. The union, which was chided by many, whether Activision did negatively impact Destiny or whether it had any creative control of the Destiny IP remains to be seen, caused many gamers to pause. The feeling that Activision’s less gamer-focused ideals, namely loot boxes and microtransactions, would creep into Destiny was enough for gamers to hate the acquisition. While Destiny did have two rough launches, it’s impossible to tell the impact Activision might have had. Nevertheless, Destiny is, essentially, one of the largest Independent developers out there.
As with most big news, we are provided with far more questions than answers; although, news is beginning to trickle out. Firstly, Battle.net will still continue to see Destiny 2 grace its platform, with no anticipation of any disruption to game services.
Destiny 2 will still receive full support on BattleNet and we do not anticipate any disruption to our services or your gameplay experience. https://t.co/FFOE1iae3R
— Blizzard CS – The Americas (@BlizzardCS) January 10, 2019
The split between the two seems as amicable as possible with Activision and Bungie jointly stating that the transition will be as seamless as possible. Â
Thank you Guardians. It’s been an honor and a privilege to help bring the world of Destiny to life for you. pic.twitter.com/EB1y19OTD8
— Activision (@Activision) January 10, 2019
Fears of Destiny’s future content with Forsaken being cut or delayed was also lessened in the Bungie company statement stating that: “Rest assured there is more of that on the way. We’ll continue to deliver on the existing Destiny roadmap, and we’re looking forward to releasing more seasonal experiences in the coming months, as well as surprising our community with some exciting announcements about what lies beyond.â€
The split seems like a net positive for both companies. Activision, as with all large companies, is focused on pleasing their investors. There have been reports (like this one from Jason Schreier of Kotaku: https://kotaku.com/activision-says-its-not-happy-with-destinys-sales-1830322804) about Activision not being happy with the current sales numbers, so this seems like a move to sort of trim what they feel isn’t working.
As for Bungie, after committing to the unprecedented moves of freeing themselves from two of the largest publishers in their history (Microsoft and now Activision), it seems that they are finally where they want to be. Independent.
