Why Bungie’s Big Leap Might Splat
Bungie is out on their own now... but how will it work out?
In 2007, Bungie announced to an applauding audience of employees that the corporate yolk of oppression had been lifted. Microsoft, their glaring down corporate overlords, had been appeased. The great departure of this studio that produced the single greatest killer software of the original Xbox in Halo: Combat Evolved had cleared its final hurdle. And with it, they made a new deal with Activision, one that would allow them to keep full ownership of this grand new IP.
The story of Destiny and how it broke apart a studio and team, which only came back together to save their franchise, is one that has already been told. But the cheering, the excited bolstering of fans and pundits alike in the liberation of Bungie from the hand of big bad Daddy Kotick, seems eerily familiar. So much so, it deserves to be addressed in addition to the logistical issues no one seems to be talking about.
The reality is this: no good marriage ends in divorce. The same could be said about the dissolution of the business relationship between Bungie and Activision. Activision believed that Destiny 2 would be a monstrous blockbuster, packed with glowing reviews, and be a pillar Activision could rely on to bolster numbers in quarterly reports to investors. Bungie thought Activision would be a reliable and understandable partner with whom they could rely on to bring their complex and difficult vision to the world. Neither party delivered on the expectations of the other.
The issues of the first Destiny’s development are well documented, particularly in a court of law. This grand space opera that Bungie began developing soon emerged as a completely different beast. But it was a beast people gravitated towards, and with improvements and expansions, became a beloved game and franchise for millions of players. When the sequel came out, it was met with a large amount of criticism that accompanied an echo of immense promise from its core audience.
Despite the issues with the game, the Destiny community is one that believes Bungie will deliver on their promises of improvements, and have remained loyal. Bungie, knowing this, has catered the vast majority of their content as of late to the most hardcore of the hardcore. The PvE content released since the launch of Forsaken is incredible. The areas are diverse, and the secrets uncovered by players continues to astound me. But this, a friendly introduction it does not make. As Bungie sees the future of Destiny as something to be grown with the core audience it has, rather than lather itself with honey and hope for the best, it put the studio directly at odds with its publisher.
Between the history of development that occurred when Bungie left Microsoft, and the logistical issues Bungie created with Destiny 2, the future of the company is lodged in at a crossroads. Without a doubt, a massive part of the most hardcore online community is found on Destiny 2’s PC servers. But the client used to manage the game and all of its social features doesn’t belong to Bungie. It’s the Blizzard-Activision owned Battle.net launcher.
For the development of the PC port and the implementation of the Forsaken expansion, Bungie heavily relied on Vicarious Visions and High Moon Studios. These two studios are directly owned by Activision, and the ability to continue to receive support from them, along with the lack of support from a new publisher, leaves a massive question in quality on the PC platform. And what about the PlayStation partnership? Will that continue in spite of it existing because of the partnership between Activision and Sony?
A history of problematic development when not being corralled by a publisher? Check.
Lack of history in PC development? Check.
Failure to find an easier way to implement microtransactions despite going on the record talking about how much development’s budget is aided by said microtransactions? Check.
When the applause ends over at Bungie this time around, and they all get ready to take their first big leap into this brave new world, let’s just hope they don’t go splat.
