Update: Weighing in on recent reports and citing sources familiar with Bungie's plans, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier claims "Destiny 3 was not canceled because it was never in development." Schreier added that the project codenamed Payback, which been making the rounds since a purported leak earlier this year, was in fact "a totally different spinoff project that was canceled a while before these layoffs."
Original story:
For years, rumors and purported leaks have claimed that Bungie is working on a would-be Destiny 3, and those claims have only escalated in recent months following the end of Destiny 2's 10-year Light and Darkness saga with The Final Shape expansion. Reputable insider Jeff Grubb now reports that, following shocking layoffs at Bungie cutting 220 people alongside Sony integration shifting 155 more, "the next Destiny" is "going on the shelf" indefinitely.
Grubb discussed the impact of the Bungie layoffs in Giant Bomb's latest livestream. Citing sources familiar with the goings-on at the studio, Grubb said, "What is going on the shelf is Payback, which was also leaked and reported to be maybe Destiny 3," referring to the codename of the project said to be the next pillar of the Destiny franchise.
Echoing similarly unclear leaks, Grubb adds that this is "technically not Destiny 3" because Bungie has internally referred to Payback "as 'the next Destiny.'" Whatever the case, "that is going on the shelf indefinitely according to the people I've talked to," Grubb says. "Let's be clear: a Destiny 3, or next Destiny, is not the thing they're going to be coming out of this looking toward, let alone working on in any real way," he adds.
Refocusing on Destiny 2, Bungie's breadwinner, in a time of economic uncertainty and internal instability, rather than gambling on another reinvention by way of not-quite-Destiny 3, does sound like a plausible plan of action. With hundreds of staff lost and another major shooter already in the works with Marathon, Bungie likely doesn't have the manpower to straddle two Destinies in the first place.
At the same time, the technical limitations of Destiny 2 have become increasingly clear in recent releases, not to mention the game's notoriously off-putting new player experience. Many suspect that Bungie will need to make some major changes if it wants to keep this franchise alive for another few years, let alone another 10.
Officially, the future of Destiny currently consists of three epilogue-style Episodes lasting about 18 weeks apiece, with the first Episode now in its second six-week act. These Episodes have replaced Seasons as Destiny 2's live service content format.
Once these three Episodes are done, we'll move into Year 11 of Destiny 2, which Bungie has codenamed "Frontiers." Bungie hasn't explained where Year 11 will take the game, but did tell Edge that it has "big plans" which it's "been working on for a while now," with assistant game director Robbie Stevens hinting at "expanding our worlds and world-building, expanding the universe of Destiny in general."
In the post announcing the layoffs, which was how many Bungie employees were "blindsided" by the news, embattled Bungie CEO Pete Parsons said the studio still has "over 850 team members building Destiny and Marathon, and we will continue to build amazing experiences that exceed our players’ expectations."
