Bungie splits with Activision and keeps Destiny for itself
After eight years of cooperation, the companies will no longer work together. Bungie opens champagne, and Activision remains without a series in which it has invested at least $ 500 million.
Destiny 2
The breakup is reported on Bungie’s official blog.
According to him, all rights to further work with IP are transferred to the developer.
“We want to thank Activision for participating in the work on Destiny. We are also pleased to announce that Activision plans to transfer the publishing rights of Destiny into the hands of Bungie. Together with the amazing community of the game, we are ready to publish the project ourselves, and Activision will concentrate on working on its own IP,” the blog says.
According to one of the sources of the Kotaku publication, Bungie employees greeted this news with enthusiasm. They even opened bottles of champagne. The reason for such joy is that the companies have been dissatisfied with each other’s work for the past few years.
The studio didn’t like that Activision forced it to bring a big release to the market every fall — a new game or a major addition to it. As for the publisher, he was not satisfied with the financial performance of the project.
In 2014, Activision management announced that it was going to invest $500 million in the development and marketing of Destiny. The publisher planned that the title (at that time the conversation was still exclusively about the first part) would live and develop for at least ten years.
Termination of cooperation with Bungie takes place against the background of a wave of permutations in Activision Blizzard. In December 2018, it became known about major changes in Blizzard, one of the three central divisions of the company. At the same time, Glen Schofield, one of the key managers of the series, leaves the company Call of Duty. A little later, this January, Activision Blizzard announced the formation of a new pool of presidents of its divisions. Activision and King received new managers. Finally, today, January 11, it became known that Blizzard co-founder and former president Mark Morhaime is finally leaving the company in April. Earlier it was reported that he will remain in it as an adviser.
