Despite numerous failures, with Concord being the most notable, Sony remains determined to continue its live service campaign. One of its subsidiaries, Destiny developer Bungie, has no choice but to follow Sony’s directives. According to Zuhaad Ali, the owner of Destiny Bulletin, many developers at Bungie are genuinely interested in creating single-player games. Unfortunately, the leadership is not inclined to pursue smaller projects; instead, they remain fully focused on developing the next big live service title.
“Something I heard when I was working on a story last year: A lot of Bungie devs were interested in returning to single-player projects,” Zuhaad Ali said. “But leadership was firmly set on live service as the studio’s future.” The man claimed that even small projects with less risk were immediately shut down. It seems likely that Bungie’s future will be dominated by live service, regardless of the developers’ wishes.
Fans who heard this rumor were disappointed. Many agree that the flood of live service games is becoming tiresome, and they would appreciate a single-player experience from Bungie. “Tragic if true. Smaller, easier-to-execute projects would’ve helped bring money in to better support their long-running projects,” one fan replied to Ali.
One Redditor commented that Bungie could have made a Halo live-service game with a single-player campaign attached. Many lamented the fact that numerous Bungie employees have been laid off, placing the blame on the decisions made by executives. “The developers at Bungie are incredibly competent. If the studio heads were capable of getting out of their own way,” another Redditor wrote. “Destiny 2 would probably be in a much better state, and Bungie would be putting out fun single-player games. But alas, Pete needs his 302nd car.”
Unfortunately, we will likely not see any single-player games from Bungie anytime soon. According to the latest report, the studio is currently working on another live-service MOBA game inspired by Smash Bros. On a lighter note, playtesters have reported that the upcoming game is very fun and easy to get into.