According to reports, Bungie experienced a significant loss of 40% of its workforce in just one day, as numerous employees were either laid off or reassigned to different projects. The development of Destiny spinoff Payback has been put on hold, and there are no current plans for Destiny 3.
In October 2023, Bungie experienced a significant round of layoffs that caused concern among many Destiny 2 players about the potential impact on The Final Shape due to the loss of staff.
Despite successfully reviving Destiny 2 and being a critical and commercial success, the expansion also unfortunately led to further layoffs, even though the team had delivered an experience that players loved.
Despite numerous calls for CEO Pete Parsons to resign due to the significant layoffs, reports suggest that this could have a major negative impact on the series.
Initially, Grubb discussed it on his podcast, Game Mess Mornings, stating that the layoffs had led to the cancellation of a Destiny spinoff codenamed ‘Payback’. He also mentioned that the game, which was not being considered as Destiny 3 internally, had been put on hold indefinitely.
Please listen to Game Mess Mornings today. It’s the first segment, and it will have all of the details you need. But the short version is that Payload, which is the “next Destiny,”is being shelved indefinitely. They do not internally consider it Destiny 3, fwiw. https://t.co/iLG30OmR1u
— Grubb (@JeffGrubb) August 1, 2024
On his podcast, Grubb also stated that Destiny 2 will receive ongoing updates, but they will be less extensive and time-consuming compared to The Final Shape. The studio’s primary focus will now be Marathon, which comes at the expense of both Destiny 3 and Payback.
He stated, “Expansions? They’re no longer referred to as such internally, they’re now labeled as content packs. This gives you an idea of what to anticipate for Destiny 2 in the future. The goal is for Destiny 2 to continue, but there will be a significant decrease in investment.”
He stated that Bungie is currently only working on these “content packs”as the new additions to Destiny.
The Destiny series hangs in the balance as Bungie focuses on Marathon
According to the individuals I have spoken with, Payback will be put on hold indefinitely. It is important to clarify that Bungie is not currently focused on, or actively working on, a Destiny 3 or any future installments of the game.
According to sources, Bloomberg’s Jason Schrier confirmed that the recent layoffs were not the reason for Payback being put on hold. Instead, the project had already been taken out of active development some time ago.
Just to clear up some rumors floating around, Destiny 3 was not canceled because it was never in development, per people familiar. Bungie did some very early work on a spinoff project called Payback, but they canceled that a while ago. I’ll have a story tomorrow with more info
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) August 1, 2024
Nevertheless, Schreier has confirmed both the title of the spinoff and the fact that Destiny 3 is not currently in production. This does not necessarily mean that Destiny 3 will never be released, but simply that the game is not currently being developed.
This, along with Grubb’s assertion that Destiny 2 is moving away from major expansions, implies that fans of the series will have to endure a significant wait before any major developments occur.
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