While there have been plenty of discussions regarding the ultimate fate of Bungie’s Destiny series, a new report by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier has indicated that the studio was at one point working on a sandbox game set in the universe of Destiny. And it was apparently none other than Payback, the third-person spin-off that was reported to be Destiny 3 at one point.
Reportedly led by Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy, it ended up canceled in Summer 2024. While details about Payback are sparse, the report indicates that it was going to essentially be the “future” of Destiny. Despite sharing the same universe, however, it may not have shared the franchise’s name. Its gameplay structure was also described as being quite different from what Destiny players might be used to.
Bringing up Genshin Impact for comparison, Schreier said that Payback was being designed as being more hero-centric, with gameplay revolving around open-world exploration and puzzle-solving.
“There were a lot of things that were different about Payback, but one of the ideas was to try to appeal to younger audiences, to new audiences, the audiences that weren’t already in the thick of the Destiny universe, because the average demographic of Destiny players kept getting older and older.”
Further discussing how Destiny 2 had become quite bad at bringing in new players due to poor onboarding and even Bungie’s content vaulting decisions, Schreier went on to say that Payback was a way for the studio to figure out how it can further grow its audience.
Since Bungie recently announced that it is “not done with Destiny” after confirming that it is bringing back Destiny 2’s vaulted content like the Red War and Forsaken campaigns, we might end up seeing Payback get further development. The studio made its announcement earlier this week, promising more stories and worlds for the shooter.
“We understand that removing these experiences had a lasting impact on player trust and enjoyment of Destiny,” said the studio on its content vaulting decisions. “Destiny 2 is more than just the content itself. It is a place where players have built memories together, formed lasting friendships, and shared experiences that have stayed with them for years. We cannot change the decision we made, but we can acknowledge its impact and do the work to make it right by restoring these important parts of Destiny’s history.”
However, the studio has said that it will need some time to bring back this content, largely due to the fact that the Destiny 2 engine has seen many changes since the content was vaulted with the release of Beyond Light. As a result, a lot of work has to be done to bring the older zones’ lighting, encounters, combatants, and gameplay systems up to modern Destiny 2 standards.
In the meantime, Bungie is also continuing its work on Marathon with the aim of creating a “deeper survival experience” that can evolve “beyond the genre constraints placed on it”. The next major update for the PvPvE extraction shooter will arrive in December, which will bring with it a team deathmatch mode, a social space, and a dedicated PvE mode.
