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Comment by WorldMaker | Hacker News Reader

Sounds like Bungie "lost". My sympathies to them. They stated after exiting Microsoft they wanted to remain independent from thenceforth (and part of why Destiny was named that, they saw it as putting their own Destiny in their own hands, it sounded like). They went through so much horror with Activision precisely because they wanted to remain independent, but it sounds like the fight with Activision left them more wounded than they wanted to admit if they are selling to Sony.

(I don't think Bungie entirely spiritually survived the split with 343 anyway, given the rumors of all the behind-the-scenes drama in the making of Destiny, but I was rooting for their continued independence as a fascinating story, even as I stopped playing Destiny 1/2 because I hated their economy.)

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> They went through so much horror with Activision

That is a falsehood that a lot management at Bungie would love to keep perpetuating. A lot of the terrible and toxic management, the disrespecting of the community, and terrible game design decisions (especially around micro-transactions) all came from the senior management at Bungie.

I don't think we'll ever know exact details for certain in the public record, but it definitely feels like one of those "it takes two to tango" situations where both sides were toxic and inflamed the worst in each other. I do think a lot of what Bungie blames on Activision were decisions they would have made anyway but liked having someone to blame. (That's still a type of horror, gaslighting yourself that your publisher is the enemy rather than your partner.)

Disclaimer: Life-long Halo fan who also put 3k hours into Destiny 1

I think that Bungie has always been really bad at project management(I think this is reflected in Halo 2, Destiny 1 and to some extent Destiny 2) which I think even extends to 343, where Halo 5 and Infinite had more than enough time to develop a reasonably featured game but couldn’t manage it. I also think that somewhere along the way they lost that skilled touch Bungie had with its community back in the day. But of course, they are still masters of the core game loop and will therefore survive. I hear they’ve improved in recent years - that’s nice, but I’d never play a new Bungie game again.

Wasn’t there a direct quote form Bungie senior leadership that they went with Activision because they came to them and pitched them how they can monetize multiplayer?

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