Destiny Developer Bungie Announces Split from Activision

Videogame developer Bungie has announced its split from publisher Activision after years of fraught relations between the two companies. The split means the popular shooter series Destiny, previously shared by the two companies, will come under the sole control of Bungie.

Destiny has become the flagship collaborative franchise for the two companies since the release of its first installment in September 2014. The second and most recent entry in the series, Destiny 2, the most recent expansion of which is Forsaken, has been wildly popular with players, despite coming up short of Activision’s sales targets.

“We have enjoyed a successful eight-year run and would like to thank Activision for their partnership on Destiny,” Bungie said in a post on their website Thursday. “Looking ahead, we’re excited to announce plans for Activision to transfer publishing rights for Destiny to Bungie. With our remarkable Destiny community, we are ready to publish on our own, while Activision will increase their focus on owned IP projects.”

In the announcement on their website, Bungie also teased more seasonal releases for updates and add-ons to Destiny. This represents a break from Activision’s strict annual schedule that, according to Kotaku, was the source of much of the tension between the two companies.

Bungie is also currently developing a brand new game separate from the Destiny franchise, thanks to a $100 million partnership with Chinese developer NetEase. Meanwhile, this news comes during a rough patch for Activision, which is reportedly starting to cut costs at its largest subsidiary company, Blizzard. It is unclear at the moment what Activision will focus its development efforts on in the place of Destiny.