We knew that Activision Blizzard have been cutting costs and trying to find ways to prevent the slide the company's been on since October and splitting ways with Bungie seems to be one of them, where the latter retains rights to Destiny.
Writing in their blog, Bungie said the gaming industry was a wildly different place in 2010 when they signed up with Activision. "We had a vision for Destiny that we believed in, but to launch a game of that magnitude, we needed the support of an established publishing partner", the company added.
Creating Destiny was "something special" and Activision played a huge role in it, helping Bungie deliver more than 50 million copies of Destiny games and expansions. Bungie speak of tens of millions of guardians that joined up in the meantime, which hopefully stay along for the ride.
Bungie thanked Activision for their partnership in a "successful eight-year run", reminding players that they're ready for self-publishing, while their former publisher is free to focus on other IPs they own.
According to the statement, Bungie's transition has already begun, albeit in the early stages, but both parties are interested in making it as quick and painless as possible.
Having said that, much has been said of Activision's role in Destiny and perhaps even more in Destiny 2, although we've got to cut them some slack. After all, it wasn't them who built the game - they just distributed it.
Granted, Activision didn't have to dictate Destiny 2's exact pricing, release schedules and microtransactions to affect them, which they probably have. The company's reluctance to try and make Bungie and Destiny 2 profitable, however, says quite a bit.
Activision Blizzard have been cutting costs for a while, most likely prompted by their stock performance. Coincidentally or not, the events following the saw the beginning of a huge stock slide, a streak that continued recently as the company lost two CFOs in .
Bungie
"We know self-publishing won’t be easy; there’s still much for us to learn as we grow as an independent, global studio, but we see unbounded opportunities and potential in Destiny. We know that new adventures await us all on new worlds filled with mystery, adventure, and hope", Bungie concluded.
You can find the official statement .
Destiny 2
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