A Bungie developer says the company is working on several unannounced projects, at least in part due to additional support under Sony’s 2022 acquisition of the company. The game development studio, most notable for Destiny 2 and the early Halo games, has primarily focused on its Destiny franchise for more than a decade.
In a series of tweets, Bungie Senior Design Lead Tom Farnsworth shared an update regarding his 11 years working on Destiny, culminating in more than 25 releases. He then followed up the tweet with another, in which he shared that there are several unannounced projects in the works at Bungie and encouraged developers to apply for open roles within the company.
“And with the support of Sony we are working on a number of unannounced projects too. Come join us!” he says in the follow-up tweet.
In a string of additional tweets, Farnsworth posted numerous job postings releated to the unannounced titles.
In October 2022, rumours circulated that the company may be rebooting its Marathon IP as an extraction-based, Escape from Tarkov-style FPS game. While industry insider Jeff Grubb shared that he’d also heard the same, there was little hard evidence to support the rumour.
However, a Bungie job posting from 2021 suggested the company was working on a game that could be live-service and free-to-play, following the studio’s present Destiny 2 model. This seems to align with the Marathon rumours.
Additionally, an intellectual property filing dating back to 2018 suggested Bungie could be working on a project called Matter. Further, in a 2019 interview with IGN, Bungie CEO Pete Parsons suggested the company would release a new non-Destiny game by 2025. Bungie job postings from 2020 indicate Bungie is developing a project that would be “comedic with lighthearted and whimsical characters,” a statement reiterated at least in part by a recent posting seeking an Incubation Gameplay Lead. A recent job posting seeking an Environment Artist suggests Bungie is working on a project that will be “visually inspired,” though it’s unclear whether that’s referencing the same game.
While Farnsworth’s tweets confirm multiple unannounced titles in development in the wake of Sony’s acquisition, Bungie’s ambitious plans to expand beyond the Destiny franchise are not a complete surprise. As part of a deal with Chinese company NetEase worth $100 million, Bungie’s blog suggested the development studio aspired to “become an entertainment company that sustains many worlds simultaneously.” In the blog post announcing Bungie’s acquisition, the developer alluded to an “acceleration in hiring talent across the entire studio to support our ambitious vision.”
However, Bungie has made it clear it won’t be neglecting the Destiny franchise anytime soon. With the Destiny 2 Lightfall release date just a few months away, which will also introduce the Destiny 2 Strand subclass, fans can only hope the company hasn’t bitten off more than it can chew with its forthcoming project slate.