Relationships keep me engaged more than the game at this point. That's not a crack on the game.

Wasn't that Bungie's goal all along with Destiny?

It's weird, but I haven't thought beyond Destiny. I kind of thought some major folks would want to retire and Destiny would be their last hurrah.

A definite possibility for Jason Jones.

Then we have the Ship of Bungieous paradox.

It's interesting. I haven't really thought past Destiny and one of my thoughts has been to somewhat retire... from so closely following video games. I'm just not sure there will ever be a series quite like this again that I enjoy so much on so many levels.

That, and I'm not sure I want to keep engaging in the "This one game is meant to be your hobby" style of gaming. As much as I enjoy Destiny, it's games like the recent God of War or Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice that I can enjoy the heck of and then put aside that I think are untimely more impactful and meaningful.

I'm totally with you and have been thinking the same thing. Other studios have surpassed Bungie's best when it comes to narrative, which is what I care most about. Destiny has been great, but not what I imagined before release.

I'm about to out myself as a filthy casual--I've been hanging around bungie.org sites for years and definitely was a fan, but gaming didn't become my primary hobby until about 10 years ago, when it provided an escape for some stuff I was going through.

I don't imagine my mix of interests will stay the same forever, and the only thing that bothers me about that change is the possible social impact. Relationships keep me engaged more than the game at this point. That's not a crack on the game.

That, and I'm not sure I want to keep engaging in the "This one game is meant to be your hobby" style of gaming. As much as I enjoy Destiny, it's games like the recent God of War or Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice that I can enjoy the heck of and then put aside that I think are untimely more impactful and meaningful.

I guess I'll give whatever it is to come a shot as long as I'm able.

You're not wrong. But we still have one more game. And, as Cody said, I doubt that will be the last we see of Destiny.

One more game isn't going to solve the things that are inherently wrong with the way Destiny has been handled from the beginning. We're not suddenly going to get a coherent narrative.

I think the most significant chance there is for things to be wrapped up neatly and with any gravitas is in a third installment; but they've left more work to be done than I think is reasonable for us to expect to see. Think about what happened to Halo canon after Halo 3. I doubt it's going to be pretty; Bungie have already severely retconned their own lore into the ground and we're only on the second game. And think about how often you hear the same complaint about Destiny: People have a hard time caring about events because most characters are little more than cardboard cutouts.

At this point, I would also be surprised if Bungie's next game wasn't similar. I suspect it will also be an always-connected shared-world something. I don't see them abandoning that concept now.

I think their infrastructure and internal processes have probably been shored up to the point that this format is kind of what they're geared for now. With the end-of-all-things aspect of the mythos in play, I'd say the Destiny IP could essentially be played out forever, as long as nobody cares too much about the story making any sense. They can always hand the reins over to Activision.

I certainly hope that if they start developing other games in parallel; they're games that are entirely different from what they've been doing. Science-fantasy is so broad it's hard for me to conceive of Bungie doing anything like what I've come to expect from them and it not seeming like Destiny.

This means Bungie is abandoning Destiny...

No, not really. We have to remember they've always said Destiny had a roughly 10 year plan around it. Depending on where you're counting from, we're either halfway through that plan or significantly through it, but either way, a lot of time has passed. This is about the time they'd start spinning up other projects. Remember, we had to wait FOUR years between Reach and Destiny for a new Bungie game.. they practically sat out the span of a regular console generation. Keep in mind how much they've supported their previous games when contractually able to - I'm not concerned.

They can barely keep up with content for Destiny! They're gonna add another game?!?!

Okay, I'll stay away from the opinion part but.. this is what all developers do. You spin up the next project while the current one is underway. This is how you keep people employed and things rolling. If Bungie waited until the last Destiny 3/4/5 content to even start working on another project, they'd have to lay off 90% of their workforce. You guys want games to have 3 year dev cycles? Alright, Bungie is going to need to start 4 years before (due to previs, pitch, etc) the game's release to get it out in time so there's no gap.

Know what's 4 years from now?

2022.

Know what year Destiny will be in then?

Year 8 if you count from D1's release. Year 12 if you're counting from Reach. Split the difference.. Destiny will be at 10 years of active development. Just like the plan. lol.

But the contract..

The best part of a new Bungie IP is we won't have people going "BUT THE CONTRACT" for the next one for another 10 years. I really, REALLY hate that the contract was made public, because people just use it to short circuit discussion about the game constantly, and don't understand contracts change, get changed, or even misinterpreted what was in the contract itself. It's been one of the worst things for casual community discussion.

Why talk about it now?

Like I said above - if they want to transition people to new projects and work, the spin up has to start now. They have to be able to publically talk about it existing, so they can hire for it more easily. I would not expect to hear anything substantial about this project until 2020 at minimum, because I'm assuming they're in pitch phase if they're showing potential partners like NetEase and are signing things just now - they wouldn't have had the spare manpower or money to start truly spinning anything substantial up - so I'll just call it the Bungie 202X Project.

Twitter is a weird form of information disbursement, where because I try to keep my follow list trim enough to be a completionist, I often just see people's reactions to things without the actual news or context. It's like living in a world of echos and reflected light.

In case, for some reason, we want to look back at what a collective of Destiny players on Reddit thought of this announcement.

Hard pass.

"Our Newest Partnership"

"Bungie CEO says the new partnership with NetEase is so they can publish their own games and not rely on Activision"

If it is a mobile game, it can be one of those "wait 12 hours to collect pieces of 8" games.

It's not so much about expectations for the longevity of the series as it is about the untapped potential of the concept. To me, Destiny still feels like it hasn't been fully defined yet.

You're not wrong. But we still have one more game. And, as Cody said, I doubt that will be the last we see of Destiny.

At this point, I would also be surprised if Bungie's next game wasn't similar. I suspect it will also be an always-connected shared-world something. I don't see them abandoning that concept now.

If three studios can barely make one game, it's tough to see how Bungie can do 2+ things at once. I mean geez. Even Aerospace never panned out.