A surprise announcement today sees developers Bungie and publishers Activision parting ways.
The split will see Bungie keeping the rights to the looter-shooter FPS, which will be self-published it in the future.
Thank you Guardians. It’s been an honor and a privilege to help bring the world of Destiny to life for you. pic.twitter.com/EB1y19OTD8
— Activision (@Activision) January 10, 2019
In a joint statement, it was also mentioned that both parties are committed to “a seamless transition” for the Destiny franchise. For PC players, it the BattleNet Support Twitter account assures that everything will run just fine.
Destiny 2 will still receive full support on BattleNet and we do not anticipate any disruption to our services or your gameplay experience. https://t.co/FFOE1iae3R
— BlizzardCS (@BlizzardCS) January 10, 2019
In 2010, the developers signed a 10-year deal to publish the Destiny series with the publisher. Apparently the deal only last eight years. Destiny 2, its latest sequel, also underperformed sales-wise and it does not help that the game was given away for free both on PS Plus and also on PC via Battle.net to ramp up interest again. The series, despite being competently made from a technical point of view, has many design issues that hold it back.
But now that Bungie has full control of its destiny (and Destiny), the developers are committed to making new content and “seasonal experiences” moving forward. We’ll see if they can make a better game now that they are self-publishing it.