Halo Creator Bungie Announces Studio Expansion Plans For New Franchises

It's hard to believe it's been more than 10 years since Bungie released their last Halo title in 2010's Halo: Reach. While the title is considered one of the best in the series, it also marked their final game in the franchise they created.

Since then, the studio partnered up with Call of Duty publisher Activision to release the Destiny looter-shooter in 2014. A sequel was released several years later following multiple huge expansions.

However, conflicts with Activision post-release led to the dissolving of the partnership as Bungie decided to fly solo with their original franchise. Destiny 2 has continued to see great success ever since as it enters its fourth year of major expansions, with plans already in place to release more in 2022.

Despite only appearing to be focusing on expansions to existing titles, Bungie seems to be gearing up for a much bigger project as they confirm plans to massively expand their studio to continue the development of Destiny 2 and new IPs.

HUGE PLANS FOR THE FUTURE OF BUNGIE

Halo and Destiny creator Bungie announced plans for a huge studio expansion to prepare for “expected and rapid future growth.” Bungie CEO Pete Parsons commented on the expansion plans in a press release, showing his excitement to grow the team:

“The past several years have been a time of tremendous growth and opportunity for Bungie.  We are home to some of the brightest and best talent in the industry, and we look forward to expanding upon both our talent pool this year and increasing the resources to support them.

In January, Bungie began construction on a huge expansion of its primary studio in Washington, which is set to be complete by Fall 2022. The Bungie HQ will grow from 84,000 to 208,000 square feet, more than doubling the studio's size to allow support from multiple teams — both in and out of the Destiny universe.

Additionally, the studio announced plans to open a second location in Amsterdam in 2022 that will be used as a marketing and publishing hub to ensure “Bungie’s ongoing commitment to unify and expand on their passionate player community all over the world.”

The studio confirmed future plans to continue support for Destiny 2, along with confirming works on “to-be-announced IPs” and plans to release at least one of these new IPs by 2025:

“One of the primary drivers of Bungie’s expansion is to increase the commitment to the long-term development of Destiny 2, tell new stories in the Destiny Universe, and create entirely new worlds in to-be-announced IPs.”

BUNGIE HAS A BRIGHT FUTURE

The announcement of this expansion is surprising, to say the least. Up until now, Bungie had only officially commented on their future plans for the Destiny IP. As the studio has achieved great success working independently, it makes sense they would want to expand their operation further into other parts of the world.

The future of Destiny is fairly clear in that the existing title will continue to be updated for plenty of years to come with no intention of releasing a potential third installment anytime soon.

However, virtually nothing is known about this new IP that Bungie is gearing up to release in the next four years. The wording of the statement seems to imply the studio has multiple new IPs in the works, meaning the huge expansion is sure to be needed for the team.

Previous job listings have revealed one of these new titles is described as a “whimsical loot game,” with trademarks filed in 2018 suggesting the title may be known as Matter. The job listings for the title additionally referenced plans for the inclusion of loot armor and weapons within the game.

With release seemingly years down the line, fans will be waiting some time to see what Bungie has up their sleeve. For now, Destiny 2 is available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Stadia, and PC via Steam.