Earlier this week, Bungie announced massive changes for the developer behind the Destiny sci-fi shooter game franchise. They included laying off 220 of its employees, along with spinning off one of its game incubation teams into its own studio. Another 155 team members will continue to work in positions at Bungie"s current owner, Sony Interactive Entertainment.
One thing that Bungie didn"t state during its official announcement of the layoffs this week is that it quietly canceled a game just a couple of months ago, according to a report from Bloomberg. The story, citing unnamed sources, says that the game was called Payback, and it was set in the Destiny universe. However, it was considered a spin-off game, rather than an actual Destiny 3 title.
Payback was being made as a third-person game, according to Bloomberg. It would have used some of the characters in the Destiny games as they explored a new world while battling monsters. The story said it had gameplay elements similar to Warframe or Genshin Impact. The story didn"t say how much development was made on Payback before Bungie canceled the project earlier this year.
With this week"s layoffs, Bungie still has a fairly large development team of about 850 employees. The company has said it will now concentrate its efforts on Destiny 2, and its upcoming sci-fi extraction shooter Marathon. Bungie has yet to reveal a release date for Marathon, but Bloomberg reports it could be released in 2025.
Finally, Bloomberg says that Bungie will not be releasing any more paid expansion packs for Destiny 2. It reports that sales of previous paid expansions have declined year by year. The current plan is to release free content updates for the game, and Bloomberg says there will also be a new storyline for the game that will include new worlds and characters.