Bungie splits with Activision; retains ownership of Destiny IP

Truant · Jan 11, 2019

Komo said:
I think they mean other IP NetEase paid for a single game from them nothing more.

Here's how I view it:

- NetEase wants a bankable western AAA developer to create a new franchise that will work in multiple markets.
- They go to Bungie, Bungie says "Sure, give us 100m. We'll start work on a new IP, as well as start self-funding/publishing Destiny".
- NetEase gets a share of the company (Destiny included), as well as board member seat.

Seems like a decent deal for both parties, if you ask me. NetEase is effectively investing in both Bungie the developer, and the business development of Bungie becoming a publisher.

juventino13 · Jan 11, 2019

Komo said:
I don't see it as that it's not like the $500 million dollars from Activision is gone. It's more along the lines of hey we want to make a game but would like someone to fund it. I think it's less money problems and more that Bungie doesn't want to fund it.

I see why because people will easily throw money at them. It gives them more room to do other things with their money.

I'm pretty sure most of the 500 mil from Activision is gone. D1 alone cost 150 and D2 was probably around the same or more due to the reboot. Now, D1 supposedly made over 500 mil alone, but just how much of that went to Bungie is the question. That being said, you have to remember that Bungie is a studio with over 700 employees, those salaries ain't cheap

Komo · Jan 11, 2019

Truant said:
Here's how I view it:

- NetEase wants a bankable western AAA developer to create a new franchise that will work in multiple markets.
- They go to Bungie, Bungie says "Sure, give us 100m. We'll start work on a new IP, as well as start self-funding/publishing Destiny".
- NetEase gets a share of the company (Destiny included), as well as board member seat.

Seems like a decent deal for both parties, if you ask me. NetEase is effectively investing in both Bungie the developer, and the business development of Bungie becoming a publisher.

Yeah this is basically what I see it as and it's nice that they brought back the Matter IP for it. NetEase was shopping and Bungie gladly went for it. It was a pretty damn good deal imo.

juventino13 said:
I'm pretty sure most of the 500 mil from Activision is gone. D1 alone cost 150 and D2 was probably around the same or more due to the reboot. Now, D1 supposedly made over 500 mil alone, but just how much of that went to Bungie is the question. That being said, you have to remember that Bungie is a studio with over 700 employees, those salaries ain't cheap

Well destiny 2 still seems to make them money so I can't see this being bad for them.

juventino13 · Jan 11, 2019

Komo said:
Yeah this is basically what I see it as and it's nice that they brought back the Matter IP for it. NetEase was shopping and Bungie gladly went for it. It was a pretty damn good deal imo.

Well destiny 2 still seems to make them money so I can't see this being bad for them.

Oh I don't think its bad, at least not in the short term while D2 is still generating income. I fear for the future, assuming they want to stay independent AND keep the studio at 700+ employees. If anything I can see them downsizing a bit in future unless they can find another publishing deal (but do they really want that is the question) Hahaha, so many things to ponder, hopefully they can figure it out

TheThreadsThatBindUs · Jan 11, 2019

Zappy said:
It said they are ready to publish. It didn't say they were looking for new partners (as it could have). It made it clear they want to self-publish.

It didn't say they were not looking for new partners. It's a fairly brief, vague statement of intent.

I don't know why you're behaving as though its some fully comprehensive, fully explanatory write up of their future plans.

"We are ready to self-publish Destiny" clearly isn't the full picture. Bungie clearly hasn't replicated all of the publishing, marketing and global distribution functions of Activision, overnight.

Komo · Jan 11, 2019

juventino13 said:
Oh I don't think its bad, at least not in the short term while D2 is still generating income. I fear for the future, assuming they want to stay independent AND keep the studio at 700+ employees. If anything I can see them downsizing a bit in future unless they can find another publishing deal (but do they really want that is the question) Hahaha, so many things to ponder, hopefully they can figure it out

I feel like this time around they are in a much better place everyone seems to forget after Microsoft they had no active IP they could fall on.

Bungie has Destiny this time around so I have faith the future of the company is all safe.

Trim · Jan 11, 2019

Hero said:
Not sure why everyone here is happy about the situation, Activision gave Bungie a lot of wiggle room and it was Bungie that decided to turn the game into a MTx route, as well as allowing them to delay both D1 and D2. Then there's lending them Vicarious Visions and High Moon to assist with content creation. Bungie is horribly mismanaged from what it sounds like and a studio as large as them going independent? Good luck.

I agree.

But at the same time this is Activision who forced Bungie to release annual expansions or games, and it is very obvious Bungie is very slow to produce content, no matter what tools they use.

So the situation will be interesting in the future, but Bungie now has no excuse to not drop something big (and not something meh at best that only the enthusiast will love)

TheGhost · Jan 11, 2019

Trim said:
I So the situation will be interesting in the future, but Bungie now has no excuse to not drop something big (and not something meh at best that only the enthusiast will love)

Casuals don't stick around long enough to cater to, sorry

Arukado · Jan 11, 2019

I'm lttp but this is a interesting development. I'm currently not invested in destiny anymore, but this makes me a bit more hopeful about it's future.

And also we'll be able to see how much control Activision had over the franchise and monetization schemes.

IIFloodyII · Jan 11, 2019

Trim said:
Until now most of th Destiny flaws and shady practices comes from Bungie, and not Activision (see old DTR podcast where they talk with Jason Shreier about Eververse).

If Bungie doubled down on the very hardcore with the recent expansions, it's mainly because they had nothing else left, not because some sort of "wake up" from them.

I can see why the remaining D2 fans are happy with this news, but Bungie is no longer the studio they once were. And without any big publisher income and control of their work we know what happens when they try something special: trainwreck.

It's not really important why they doubled down on the hardcore, only that they did and D2 is the best it's been ever (even if it's no longer for me) because of it.
I agree Bungie have no excuses now though, they have to nail D3/whatever they do next, ot being in that seemingly very toxic relationship will hopefully help.

ZeoVGM · Jan 11, 2019

juventino13 said:
If you think Bungie have enough money to publish a Destiny 3 you're in for a rude awakening

So you think they're literally lying about one of the biggest aspects of their announcement.

lol. Got it.

Papacheeks · Jan 11, 2019

ZeoVGM said:
So you think they're literally lying about one of the biggest aspects of their announcement.

lol. Got it.

They will have some form of third party backing by an investor or parent company. If Blizzard isn't going to be part of how DESTINY 3 get's distributed for PC, they need someone for servers. There's no way they would do all that in house. SO expect someone like a Korean or Chinese gaming company to back them.

juventino13 · Jan 11, 2019

ZeoVGM said:
So you think they're literally lying in their blog.

lol. Got it.

If they had enough money to self publish a DESTINY 3, not existing Destiny 2 content, they wouldn't be taking money from NetEase. If you really think Bungie can fund the development and publishing of DESTINY 3 while maintaining a 700+ strong company then I don't know what to tell ya. Maintaining servers alone in house will be impossible, they couldn't even get dedicated servers with the backing from Activision. That blog post was incredibly vague, there isn't much to be inferred from that tbh. Like I said, you're in for a rude awakening if you really think they'll pull it off on their own. PR talk is PR talk

Gatti-man · Jan 11, 2019

jviggy43 said:
Activision allowed Bungie to release the game a full year after it was supposed to, TWICE. People are really drinking that activision kool aid here. I'm not saying they aren't greedy (activision) but by all accounts they were pretty awesome to bungie and bungie kept dropping the ball time and time again.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/destiny-2/destiny-2-reboot-jason-schreier

I'm aware of that and yet my example still remains true. 1 year delay on a game like D1 may not have been enough it's as simple as that.

Cranster said:
That is still Bungie's fault. They were not footing the bill on the games development, Activision was. Like the posibility with Halo 2 the game probably would have been canceled if not for deadlines being enforced.

No way halo 2 would ever be cancelled get real.

Missing deadlines is Bungies fault yes releasing unfinished games is the fault of who ever forces the release. Some games take longer than others to make. What important is they are actually done when released.

Septic · Jan 11, 2019

Now Destiny 3 will have dedicated servers yay

Sec0nd · Jan 11, 2019

I'm curious what the effects will be and what kind of influence it will have on Destiny or any other project in the future. Destiny just doesn't really do it for me, and feels like something entirely different from what the actually pitched when they were working on it. But it feels like these flaws come from Bungie itself and not Activision. Fundamental story and gameplay issues. But we'll see!

juventino13 · Jan 11, 2019

Septic said:
Now Destiny 3 will have dedicated servers yay

Bungie couldn't get dedicated servers for D2 even with backing from Activision, I don't see how they can afford to have dedicated servers for a potential D3 on their own

Salty AF · Jan 11, 2019

Hero said:
Slight correction here, but Bungie had 750 employees as of 2016. So yeah.

Holy shit.

joe_zazen · Jan 11, 2019

Gatti-man said:
I'm aware of that and yet my example still remains true. 1 year delay on a game like D1 may not have been enough it's as simple as that.

Obviously wasnt. They needed to rework the entire unverse lore and story, implement it into the game, add content, and play test and tune a lot more if they wanted a perfect game, so another 24 months on top of the 12. Instead, it was an early acess release. I would have stayed onboard if that is how they would have sold it.

Bold One · Jan 11, 2019

Has anyone actually completed the Niobe Labs puzzle?

juventino13 · Jan 11, 2019

Gatti-man said:
I'm aware of that and yet my example still remains true. 1 year delay on a game like D1 may not have been enough it's as simple as that.

No way halo 2 would ever be cancelled get real.

Missing deadlines is Bungies fault yes releasing unfinished games is the fault of who ever forces the release. Some games take longer than others to make. What important is they are actually done when released.

I dunno about that, a lot of big games have gotten cancelled for the same reasons. The development for Halo 2 was a disaster and it came pretty close to not happening in the end. That being said, I'm glad MS didn't pull the plug on it, its a great game

joe_zazen · Jan 11, 2019

juventino13 said:
Destiny 1 alone cost 500 million, Bungie does not have the money to self publish a Destiny 3

Not having access to the money is different than not having the money. The question is how much control can they retain in exchange for the money.

Ushay · Jan 11, 2019

This can only be good news.

I wonder what will happen to the PC version and their marketing deals, assuming they were all sorted via Activision.

juventino13 · Jan 11, 2019

joe_zazen said:
Not having access to the money is different than not having the money. The question is how much control can they retain in exchange for the money.

Fair enough, but realistically, do you think Bungie can fund the development and publishing of Destiny 3 while paying off 700+ employees on their own? I dunno man, Destiny may have made a lot of money, but it also took a ton of money to make. I do wonder just how much money they have to fund future projects, it'll be interesting to see what the future brings for them for sure

Asbsand · Jan 11, 2019

Welp, they gotta watch out for Microsoft's aquisition spree now.

Deleted member 5764 · Jan 11, 2019

I've had some time to digest this news, and I'm definitely cautiously optimistic. As many others have said, Activision was not the sole cause of Destiny 1/2's problems. I think Activision's aggressive timeline certainly didn't help though, and Bungie has shown that they're really willing to work with the community on fixing things that they mess up.

No matter what, the next Destiny game will probably take much longer to release but I'm ok with that. Give me a proper next-gen title where Bungie has the freedom to build on one title and not necessarily make a sequel every few years. I basically want Destiny to be an MMO that Bungie continually builds upon while eventually doing other side projects.

Asbsand said:
Welp, they gotta watch out for Microsoft's aquisition spree now.

I'm not sure "watch out" is the best thing to say here. Microsoft may very well reach out to them, but Phil isn't going to kidnap their families leaving no choice but to be acquired. Any decision like that would be mutual, but it seems doubtful at this point.

Ringten · Jan 11, 2019

If this means less MTX focused bullshit, then that's a step in the right direction.

Not sure if Activision are to blame for the shortcoming of destiny 1 and 2. Either they helped bungie focus or they restricted them.. We will find out soon enough

Lifendz · Jan 11, 2019

Hopefully they do a podcast talking about the rational for the split and what their plans are for Destiny long-term.

Alric · Jan 11, 2019

Are we going to find out that Tencent owns 51% of bungie soon?

Raide · Jan 11, 2019

Ringten said:
If this means less MTX focused bullshit, then that's a step in the right direction.

Not sure if Activision are to blame for the shortcoming of destiny 1 and 2. Either they helped bungie focus or they restricted them.. We will find out soon enough

I think the deal sounded good but both sides are to blame. We could argue that Activision wanted the game to be split so badly and fleece their userbase but Bungie rolled with it and made their own choices. Bungie wanted freedom and did the opposite due to money, its a business after all.

Deleted member 224 · Jan 11, 2019

So, they're going to self publish a huge AAA multi studio franchise? And people expect less microtransactions in D3?

Bjones · Jan 11, 2019

Do you think MS will take them in internally ?

Raide · Jan 11, 2019

JDSpades said:
So, they're going to self publish a huge AAA multi studio franchise? And people expect less microtransactions in D3?

If they do more cosmetic ones or make the MTX actually worth the money and providing free content updates, then they can do what they like.

ZeoVGM · Jan 11, 2019

Asbsand said:
Welp, they gotta watch out for Microsoft's aquisition spree now.

No they don't.

Sir Tsunami · Jan 11, 2019

ZeoVGM said:
No they don't.

Is Bungie publicly traded?

If it isn't, people are just hoping and wishing when they mention MS or anyone else buying them

tmkn said:
I love how delusional people are about Bungie,, did they forget that Bungie shipped Destiny 1 year late, they continuously missed internal deadlines, yet Activision was cool with it but now is somehow the bad guy?
People are in for a rude awakening.

Much of the anti-publisher bias is showing up. Maybe if bungie sits down, explains their plans going forward, and actually execute, it'll prove those biases correct. That's a big if though. They have 2 straight releases that are late and underwhelming on the release date

tmkn · Jan 11, 2019

I love how delusional people are about Bungie,, did they forget that Bungie shipped Destiny 1 year late, they continuously missed internal deadlines, yet Activision was cool with it but now is somehow the bad guy?
People are in for a rude awakening.

Alderade · Jan 11, 2019

Wall Street just opened and Activision-Blizzard stock drops 11,87%.

Deleted member 224 · Jan 11, 2019

Raide said:
If they do more cosmetic ones or make the MTX actually worth the money and providing free content updates, then they can do what they like.

I'm just wondering how people expect the Destiny franchise to become more consumer friendly. Bungie has lost a ton of their development help from High Moon (and others). They also have lost a huge amount of financial backing. I haven't heard of too many large independent developers self publishing massive AAA franchises successfully this generation, but I'd think Bungie would be doing whatever they can to monetize Destiny going forward.

Mcfrank · Jan 11, 2019

Doctor Ironic said:
PC version has a bigger player base than the Xbox One version. They can skip PC I guess but they'd be damn fools to.

Wow I didn't know that. Source?

s3ltz3r · Jan 11, 2019

Asbsand said:
Welp, they gotta watch out for Microsoft's aquisition spree now.

Ew, no. Why leave Activision to go back to Microsoft? Gross.

Bungie definitely should remain independent or at least work with a developer that has some gaming soul. I am definitely willing to buy another Bungie game, now that they left Activision.

Good shit, Bungie.

TheGhost · Jan 11, 2019

Sooo Bungie on the Microeoft stage this E3 maybe?

Not as a purchased company or partnership but just because it will be the biggest stage this year.

It would make for a good moments and signal the end of content exclusive bullshit.

Raide · Jan 11, 2019

JDSpades said:
I'm just wondering how people expect the Destiny franchise to become more consumer friendly. Bungie has lost a ton of their development help from High Moon (and others). They also have lost a huge amount of financial backing. I haven't heard of too many large independent developers self publishing massive AAA franchises successfully this generation, but I'd think Bungie would be doing whatever they can to monetize Destiny going forward.

Agreed. During the D1 days they still had the goodwill of the Halo fan base but that's long gone. Bungie will either make another deal or will fill it with MTX stuff. The later is probably the route they will go if they don't want to join another publisher.

juventino13 · Jan 11, 2019

Alderade said:
Wall Street just opened and Activision-Blizzard stock drops 11,87%.

They also dropped around 7% (I think that's what I read) in after hours trading yesterday with the Bungie news

Panic Freak · Jan 11, 2019

I want to know how they are going to raise capital to fund the development of Destiny 3. They will probably need about $200 million to create and bring Destiny 3 to market. I wouldn't be surprised if they released it into early access.

Asbsand · Jan 11, 2019

s3ltz3r said:
Ew, no. Why leave Activision to go back to Microsoft? Gross.

Bungie definitely should remain independent or at least work with a developer that has some gaming soul. I am definitely willing to buy another Bungie game, now that they left Activision.

Good shit, Bungie.

It's not like Bungie changed with the snap of a finger just because they're no longer with activision. Around 2010 Bungie grew in size almost tripled which led to increased corporate structure and office policies, and you can even see in the pre-Destiny release interviews that they all realized that they were the rebels at Microsoft because they didn't have to take care of all the financial safety, whereas now, they are the ones who have to be responsible for everything which is partly why they have become more corporate it seems.

It's not 100% Activisions fault that Bungie has been failing here and there lately, it's more a biproduct of it and not something I expect to change back to how it was before since the damage has already been done. They fired Marty and lost Joe Staten and other talent such as the art lead on the Halo franchise also left around 2015. They seem like a different company now imo.

juventino13 · Jan 11, 2019

TheGhost said:
Sooo Bungie on the Microeoft stage this E3 maybe?

Not as a purchased company or partnership but just because it will be the biggest stage this year.

It would make for a good moments and signal the end of content exclusive bullshit.

Bungie has no say on when exclusive content ends, those deals are made through the publisher

Raide · Jan 11, 2019

juventino13 said:
Bungie has no say on when exclusive content ends, those deals are made through the publisher

The one they just left? I am sure they made deals etc but the quicker the exclusive content drops, the better.

m23 · Jan 11, 2019

Great news for Bungie. I guess we'll see just how much influence Activision had on the quality of the games when the next installment is released.

Ray Barata · Jan 11, 2019

TheGhost said:
Sooo Bungie on the Microeoft stage this E3 maybe?

Not as a purchased company or partnership but just because it will be the biggest stage this year.

It would make for a good moments and signal the end of content exclusive bullshit.

Way, way, way too premature for that. Honestly, I don't think we'll see Bungie announcing any type of partnership this year. The logistics of the break with Activision combined with the continued Destiny 2 support will take at least that long.

TheGhost · Jan 11, 2019

juventino13 said:
Bungie has no say on when exclusive content ends, those deals are made through the publisher

Whelp....season of the forge doesn't have exclusive content for Sony I'm expecting the rest of the seasons do not as well.
And they are self publishing so I'm going to assume that contract is done.

Bungie splits with Activision; retains ownership of Destiny IP

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