Destiny spin-off project reportedly canceled following departure of Bungie veterans

by Danny Craig  · 
Destiny spin-off project reportedly canceled following departure of Bungie veterans
Bungie

It has been reported that "Payback," a project set in Bungie's Destiny universe, has been canceled, which resulted in the departures of long-time employees Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy.

The details:

  • Earlier this week, Bungie announced that it would lay off 220 employees, accounting for 17% of its workforce. The decision was made due to "rising development costs and industry shifts," and the studio will now focus on Destiny 2, Marathon, and an unannounced project that has been moved to a new developer under PlayStation.

  • As reported by Giant Bomb's Jeff Grubb and Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, a project once thought to be Destiny 3, codenamed "Payback," was actually a spin-off set in the same universe that was canceled "a while ago".

  • Payback's existence was revealed earlier this year when a Reddit user shared details of the project after claims about Destiny 2's The Final Shape DLC proved to be correct. The game was said to completely remove the class system found in previous Destiny titles, which is more accurate to the universe's lore.

  • It was also claimed (via Gamespot) that Smith and Noseworthy left the company after being "caught in the executive and leadership shakeup" that occurred around the time Payback was canceled in mid-June. The two veterans reportedly decided to leave as they saw "no path forward at Bungie".

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