Following layoffs at Bungie that affected greater than 220 folks, extra particulars about what the Sony-owned developer has been as much as have emerged, together with extra details about a canceled Destiny spinoff referred to as venture Payback that may have taken the franchise in a a lot completely different course.
In line with a report from Bloomberg, Payback would have been performed from a third-person perspective, a departure from the first-person perspective utilized in Destiny. It was stated to have taken inspiration from in style free-to-play third-person video games like Warframe and Genshin Influence and would have allowed gamers to discover a big open world whereas cooperatively battling enemies and fixing puzzles.
Payback was canceled two months in the past, in response to the report, and nearly all of Bungie is now engaged on Marathon, a reboot of an outdated Bungie IP from the 90s reimagined as an extraction shooter. The Marathon reboot was formally introduced final 12 months and is now stated to be aiming for a 2025 launch. As famous by Bloomberg, Payback was not Destiny 3, which has by no means been in improvement.
A number of the studio continues to be engaged on Destiny 2 as nicely, although Bungie is claimed to be shifting away from annual growth releases. As a substitute, it’s going to deal with free content material updates whereas additionally making an attempt to create a smoother onboarding course of for brand spanking new gamers, in addition to a doable rebranding.
That is the second spherical of layoffs to hit Bungie lately following Sony’s acquisition of the studio in 2022. Late final 12 months, round 100 Bungie builders have been let go and Destiny 2’s The Remaining Form growth and Marathon have been each delayed consequently. Bungie CEO Pete Parsons on the time stated the corporate had missed its income targets by 45% and was dropping cash.
He stated a lot the identical in a weblog publish asserting the latest spherical of layoffs, stating the developer was “overly formidable, our monetary security margins have been subsequently exceeded, and we started working within the pink.” The layoffs have been already within the works, in response to Game File’s Stephen Totilo, previous to the optimistic essential reception and launch of The Remaining Form in June.
In addition to the layoffs, a number of Bungie veterans, together with Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy, have departed Bungie this week, parted methods with the developer this week. Round 155 different Bungie builders shall be absorbed into Sony Interactive Leisure, whereas yet one more group of Bungie staff shall be spun out to create a completely new studio underneath Sony.