A developer on Destiny 2 briefly discussed some of the misconceptions about Bungie's relationship with former publisher Activision. The developer said he wished to "dispel some rumors."
Earlier this year, Bungie announced that it would split from Activision and venture forth to make Destiny 2 on its own. The two companies had shared a partnership around the franchise before production began on the first game and Destiny saw a few big releases during that time. Both companies described the split as mutual, and since then Bungie has been on its own.
This has led a lot of fans to speculate that many of Destiny 2's problems during its rocky launch came from Activision lording over Bungie. The first year of the game had a lot of issues. Fans complained about Destiny 2's endgame, about poorly detailed balance patches that left players scratching their heads, and about a lack of transparency from Bungie that gave players unclear expectations about the future of the project. Many fans assumed Activision dictated these decisions and that Bungie's wanting to do things differently eventually drove a wedge in the relationship.
According to Destiny 2's communications director David "Deej" Dague, fans have it wrong. In a recent interview, Eurogamer asks Deej if the team would have had the opportunity to make the recent changes if it still had to report to Activision. Deej says he does not know, but that Activision actually didn't restrict Bungie as much as fans think. He describes the split as "amicable"
"I think we need to dispel the notion Activision was some prohibitive overlord that wasn't letting us do awesome things. We launched this franchise with Activision, naturally and over the course of time we both decided we had different goals for what we wanted it to be, so we both went our separate ways. It was amicable, and here we are making this game on our own, doing what we think we need to do to make it awesome."
This quote sounds similar to what the two companies said in their statement during the split. Deej says that Activision didn't act like "prohibitive overlords" and that the game directors have always made the decisions. In the interview, Deej says that the biggest changes come from their level of access to resources. They had more teams with more people helping them when Activision published Destiny 2, and now they have to do it on their own.
Deej's words make sense. Fans should remember that Activision didn't need to let go of the Destiny brand when it split with Bungie. If the company wanted more oversight, they could have let go of Bungie and given Destiny to one of their many other teams. Instead, the two parted ways civilly.
On the other hand, fans have felt a shift. Bungie has opened up a lot more about how the game comes together behind the scenes. If Bungie did have enough differences with Activision about the future of the brand to split them up, then it stands to reason that the publisher meddled more than Deej lets on.
Destiny 2 is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.