Bungie assumes full rights to Destiny franchise, splits with Activision
In one of the most unexpected moves in quite some time, Bungie announced that it will be solely publishing the Destiny franchise after splitting with Activision.
Bungie and Activision have been in a partnership for the last few years for the production of Destiny and its subsequent sequel and expansions, but there have been rumors of strife between the parties for some time.
Just a few months after the release of Destiny 2: Forsaken, Bungie has now announced that they are assuming full rights of the franchise moving forward.
We are not disappointed with Forsaken. We set out to build a game that Destiny players would love, and at Bungie, we love it too.
Building Destiny for players who love it is and will remain our focus going forward.
— Luke Smith (@thislukesmith) November 10, 2018
Destiny 2 players on PC will also be able to breath easy with Blizzard announcing that the title will continue to receive full support on BattleNet and players won’t notice any disruption in their service or gameplay.
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
The move has been met with widespread praise from the Destiny community as many feel that now Bungie will have full creative control over the popular franchise.
Call of Duty fans also have reason to be happy with the move as the series is now the lone owned IP of Activision, which could allow the company to give the franchise more attention moving forward.
Of special note, Vicarious Visions and High Moon Studios, both owned by Activision, previously put in work on Destiny and will now be free to work on other titles after the end of this partnership. The possibility remains that these studios can help with Call of Duty at some point down the line.