Destiny 2 - PC/Xbox/PS4 - Page 72

Today, Bungie, creator of Halo and current developer of Destiny 2, has announced a massive expansion as the result of rapid growth since its split from Activision.

A press release out today cites a number of coming changes to Bungie, all them seeming to be good news for both the company, and fans of its games.

Here are the highlights about what’s taking place over the coming next few years:

Bungie is doing a massive redesign and expansion of its Bellevue HQ in Washington which will take its size from 84,000 square feet to 208,000. This is to allow for future growth but also recent hires. Last report was that a quarter of Bungie employees had never set foot in Bungie HQ because they were all hired during the pandemic as the studio staffed up rapidly.

Bungie will also open a studio internationally, over in Amsterdam, which will be mainly about publishing and marketing. That will happen in 2022.

Bungie is bringing on new high-up hires while retaining their old crew, and forming two distinct teams going forward. Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy will continue to run the Destiny universe with its “highly engaged fanbase,” giving players hope that Destiny content will continue indefinitely past Lightfall, the announced 2022 expansion.

They are also forming separate teams for its new incubation projects, though none are officially announced here. They plan to release their first non-Destiny IP before 2025, so we are talking long, long term plans here. They say “at least” one new IP before then.

Under a section called “Bungie welcomes entertainment and media expertise to board of directors” they announce the addition of Pamela Kaufman, President of Global Consumer Products for ViacomCBS, to the board. No specific projects are mentions, but the heavy implication here is that Bungie may be looking to bring its IPs (Destiny, most obviously) to non-games media like TV or film.

There is always some trepidation about how Bungie is doing with its somewhat shrinking Destiny playercount over time, and yet the game is still very, very large and features an active fanbase that is clearly spending enough on expansions, seasons and Eververse transactions to partially fund this. Bungie has also gotten outside investment as well, like $100 million from NetEase back in June 2018.

Regardless, this all only seems like good news for both Bungie and Destiny fans, with that series seeming like it has a potentially unlimited lifespan, alongside other IPs Bungie is working on. I’ve said for a while now that it seems clear Bungie wants to be BioWare or Blizzard in their primes with multiple IPs in their arsenal, and this is the road you take to get there. Exciting stuff.