New Destiny Payback Project No Longer Happening, Senior Executives Leave

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Bungie is no longer working on Payback, a new project set in the Destiny universe once overseen by franchise bosses Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy.

Gamespot's Tamoor Hussain, Giant Bomb's Jeff Grubb, and Bloomberg's Jason Schreier all say so, with Smith and Noseworthy also no longer at Bungie.

Details of Payback leaked online in April, when it was described as “Destiny 3.” At the time, there were questions about whether the project was still in development. Now, Schreier has confirmed that Payback was more of a spin-off, and was canceled “a while ago.”

According to previously leaked details about Payback, the game would shake up the Destiny franchise by moving away from a class-based character system. Its name was supposedly a reference to “Bungie getting back at themselves by making something they hope everyone will love.”

The departures of Smith and Noseworthy appear to be tied to the cancellation of Payback, before the latest round of layoffs hit Bungie this week, when 220 jobs were lost. Gamespot sources said the executive shakeup meant the pair had “no path forward at Bungie.”

Both Smith and Noseworthy were Bungie veterans, with the former having been with the company since 2007. The pair worked closely together to build the Destiny franchise, perhaps most memorably for the excellent Taken King expansion. Their departures now further muddy the picture of what Bungie plans to do with Destiny next, following the launch of the culminating expansion The Final Shape earlier this year.

Bungie executives “overstated” their financial prospects at Sony, which purchased Bungie in 2022 for $3.6 billion, necessitating this year’s brutal layoffs, GameFile reported last night.

Staff have harshly criticized Bungie boss Pete Parsons over the job losses, while affected employees have spoken out, including one woman who was fired on the eve of her maternity leave.

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