Update: 01/08/2024 19:23PM BST – Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier has claimed that Destiny 3 hasn't been shelved as it was "never in development," and that Project Payback had actually been cancelled before the layoffs earlier this week. Original story follows.
Earlier this week, Destiny 2 developer Bungie shocked fans by announcing its second round of mass layoffs in just two years, eliminating over 220 roles and roughly 17 percent of the studio's workforce. Among those to lose their job was The Final Shape narrative lead Kwan Perng, as it seems like the success of the expansion hasn't done much to stop people that worked on it from being laid off.
With the loss of that much talent, there were fears among fans that Bungie's future projects may be impacted, and according to industry insider Jeff Grubb, that's exactly what's happened. According to Grubb in the most recent episode of Game Mess Mornings, the layoffs have forced Bungie into indefinitely shelving Project Payback, which is supposedly the internal codename for "the next Destiny".
"What is going on the shelf is Payback," says Grubb. "This is what was also leaked and reported to be maybe Destiny 3– technically not Destiny 3. Internally, they would refer to it as 'the next Destiny'. I don't know if the distinction is there, but they think there's a distinction there. But that is going on the shelf indefinitely, according to the people I've talked to."
Destiny 2 Will Also Reportedly Be Impacted By Bungie's Recent Layoffs
Grubb continues with the bad news by claiming that Destiny 2 is also going to be impacted by Bungie's recent layoffs, claiming that the game's future content and expansions are going to shift in scale, and that the days of major expansions like The Final Shape may be over.
Of course, all of this is worth taking with a pinch of salt as none of it has been officially confirmed. Grubb has a very good track record when it comes to leaking inside information, but it's not perfect, and it's entirely possible that the next Destiny is still being worked on. However, Bungie losing 17 percent of its workforce and potentially being absorbed by PlayStation is going to have an impact in some way. We'll just have to wait and see how hard the studio has been hit.
