Bungie’s plans for a new, non-Destiny game have been an open secret for some time now. The company partnered with China’s NetEase last year to “explore new directions,” and various reports around the studio have always hinted at something beyond Destiny over the horizon. Now, on the eve of the Shadowkeep release date, Bungie has confirmed plans for a new franchise.
“By 2025 we have a pretty specific path to make sure we transform Destiny and that we have other franchises within the marketplace,” CEO Pete Parsons tells IGN. He adds that “We need to build our publishing group, but part of our vision is also to become a multi-franchise entertainment company.”
One year ago, Bungie filed a trademark for something called Matter, complete with a rainbow-soaked logo treatment, under the categories of game software, entertainment services, and publishing of user-generated content. It’s likely that this is at least the working title for the new game, though the trademark is under dispute from a French software company called Matters.
Parsons says that following Destiny’s success, Bungie wants to “begin to introduce new worlds that people care a lot about.”
But 2025 is pretty far in the future, and for now Bungie is focused primarily on evolving Destiny. “We need to begin transforming Destiny,” Parsons says. “The Destiny that we really believe in, like, the thing we think Destiny needs to become. I think you’ve seen it in the vid doc, like, the single evolving world, we needed to focus on that.”