Bloomberg's Jason Schreier reports that two months before the mass layoff of more than 200 staff at Bungie this week, the third-person spin-off project codenamed "Payback," set in the world of Destiny, was was cancelled in favor of development of the Marathon extraction shooter.

According to a blog post by Bungie CEO Pete Parsons announcing the layoffs (which is how some staff members learned of the news), the studio's second major downsizing in less than a year will result in "several The second major downsizing of the studio in less than a year was the result of an "overly ambitious" management decision to launch "several incubation projects," which spread Bungie's development staff "too thin, too fast. One of those projects is "Payback," a spin-off of "Destiny," which, according to Schreier's sources, will "shake up the formula in a big way."

Described as an "important departure" that incorporates elements of Warframe and Genshin Impact, Payback replaces Destiny's first-person perspective with third-person combat and exploration, "allowing players to explore a larger world with their franchise characters Two months ago, Bungie cancelled Payback to focus development resources on Marathon and transferred most of the Payback team to support the extraction shooter reboot, which is scheduled for release in 2025.

Schreier noted that rumors circulating online in recent months led fans to believe that Payback was being developed as a full sequel to Destiny 2, which was inaccurate "according to sources."

Payback was considered internally as a spin-off project It was being considered, he writes, and Schreier also notes that Bungie has not begun development on the Destiny 3 project and is instead trying to maintain ongoing support for Destiny 2, especially since the studio's fatal failure of last year's Lightfall expansion. They also report that they are taking into account the financial pressures they are facing, especially since the fatal failure of last year's expansion Lightfall.

Related to the topic of annual expansions, Bungie is reportedly abandoning a major annual drop for Destiny 2, with company leaders stating at a recent conference that sales are down year-over-year. Instead, Destiny 2 will move to a model focused on releasing "small content drops" as free updates, a model that has been cited as a replication of the success of last year's Into The Light update. (9]

Schreier also reported that longtime Destiny senior creators Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy left the studio this week, along with other Bungie executives. However, neither had been actively working on Destiny 2 for the past few years, and the studio is now led by veteran Tyson Green, who took over from Joe Blackburn in January.

What is most surprising about this, besides the fact that Bungie was running multiple incubation projects and that its only profitable game, Final Shape, was seeking further support, is that Final Shape was a player and critical The game was probably a huge success among players and critics alike. It may even be nominated for Game of the Year. Despite such a resurgence, however, the number of concurrent players is still well below the number of concurrent players after the launch of "Lightfall," confirming suspicions that many fans may have jumped on the game as a good opportunity to finish the main storyline.

With the studio in unprecedented turmoil and player sentiment hitting rock bottom once again, Destiny's long-term viability looks dangerously uncertain. Players hoping for a sliver of solace may cling to the fact that Bungie often does its best creative work when its back is against the wall, as in the case of Into The Light and The Final Shape. Of course, this will be little consolation to those laid off this week. They gave everything they had to bring the decade-long saga to a close in the best possible way, and they were making a living amidst the upheaval.

Pete Parsons, on the other hand, may have rewarded himself with a $2.4 million vintage car.