Bungie has just announced it will be splitting its publishing partnership with Activision on the Destiny franchise, while retaining ownership of the intellectual property.
The announcement was made today on Bungie’s official blog, where the company said it will be working closely with Activision to wind down the partnership – which began eight years ago – “as seamless as possible”.
In June of last year, Bungie received a $100 million dollar investment by NetEase, the Chinese mega-corporate which creates its own PC and mobile games, licenses Activision and Blizzard IP for China, and provides network infrastructure to parts of the country. The investment also gave NetEase a minority stake, and a seat at the board of directors.
At the time of the investment Bungie said the studio planned to invest in new IP and worlds, while continuing to support the Destiny franchise.
In other recent Destiny news, the Season of the Forge is well and truly underway, with Black Armory’s last forge unlocking to all players, after Bungie responded to the mixed reception of a global in-game puzzle which would have led to the unlocking of the Forge.