Last Tuesday Bungie showcased the latest gameplay from the upcoming expansion The Final Shape, but alongside the reveal of Prismatic (the new combination of light and darkness subclass), a relatively unknown leaker came to prominence detailing leaks of Destiny 3 in development at Bungie. Today I’d like to have a look at all the info that’s out there in the wild at the moment and ask the question, ‘Is Destiny 3 in development?’ at Bungie.
On April 9th Bungie exceeded expectations with their Final Shape reveal showcasing new features like the new enemy faction The Dread, Exotic Class items and the new subclass Prismatic, which allows us to combine elements of existing subclasses into a new, super powerful subclass with combinations we’ve not seen before.
We had an interesting opening to that showcase, with Luke Smith, former Destiny 2 Game Director, opening the show by telling us Bungie would be back soon after The Final Shape, to let us know “what’s next for Destiny 2 and beyond”. While The Final Shape has been billed as the conclusion to the Light vs Darkness saga, 10 years in the making, we haven’t had confirmation of what’s coming next, other than Episodes which follow on from The Final Shape. Luke Smith hasn’t been seen publically at Bungie for a long time, with Joe Blackburn taking on the public role for many years since taking over as Game Director. Now Joe is gone, and The Final Shape is close, it’s now time for Bungie to lift the curtain on what’s next for Destiny 2, and that could include a new mainline entry in the franchise… Destiny 3.
Back in February 2024, a random reddit account called u/32638272187 posted this.
“Anyone here know if prism has been leaked yet? Since there’s been no answer yet I guess I’ll leak it: Bungie is working on a system called prism that will allow players to mix and match abilities from different subclasses. This is one of the things being worked on during the delay. Imagine throwing a lightning grenade while on solar, or procing devour and rampaging with Stormcaller.”
This was the first time Prism, or Prismatic had been mentioned, therefore given the accuracy of this leak weeks before the official announcement, people have gone back to look at other comments made by this reddit user, and have found some interesting information there with credible focusing on Destiny 3 being in-development.
They went on to say
“Destiny 3 is (was? idk) in development under code name payback. One of the big changes for Destiny 3 is (was, again idk) for classes to no longer exist and allow any character to spec into any ability since lore wise there is no reason you couldn’t (Hunters explicitly learned blink from Warlocks and blink isn’t tied to a single element, hence the logic there).”
There is potential here that Prismatic is building up to something in Destiny 3, where Bungie get rid of subclasses all together and allow us to mix and match light and darkness abilities on the same subclass. The leaker detailing Destiny 3 is one thing, but other things have been pointing to Destiny 3 aswell.
First of all, I doubt Bungie built Prismatic in the delay time between the first Final Shape reveal in August and the second reveal stream in April. It would have taken months, maybe years of development and testing to get Prismatic into a state where it a) functions correctly and b) doesn’t break the game. The testing period alone would have been months of work.
Second, Bungie haven’t been as careful as normal with power creep. Over the year Bungie have scaled back the power gains in Destiny, through various means, to make sure our Guardians power has been kept within reasonable limits, otherwise we’re just going to blow through content. With the return of some of the most powerful weapons in the game with Into The Light and the Brave arsenal, Bungie aren’t being so careful when it comes to power creep. You could view this as one final blow out before the next game, where we get a big reset moment.
Third, Luke Smith’s wording when it comes to what’s next for Destiny is revealing. He said Bungie would be back after The Final Shape to let us know “what’s next for Destiny 2 and beyond”. You could interpret that as we’re going to get episodes, then maybe another major expansion, and then we start the build up to Destiny 3. If Destiny 3 is in development then it’s likely it’s been in development for a few years, and it’s likely to take a few years more, so I doubt we’re going to see Destiny 3 (if indeed it does exist) until at least 2026 or 2027.
Finally, I think the Sony acquisition comes into play. They purchased Bungie to help them out with their live service push, and while Sony have seen great success with Helldivers 2 in recent months, Bungie have been working with other studios like Naughty Dog, providing feedback on their live service games. So far that has lead to Naughty Dog canning their live service version of The Last of Us, plus plenty of public criticism from Sony management regarding how Bungie conduct their business. However, Bungie could have shared Destiny 3 plans with Sony to help seal the deal, showing them what’s to come in a few years time.
Why would Bungie want to make a Destiny 3 you may ask. Well, Destiny 2 can only go on for so long. Bungie have refreshed the engine and have injected new life into the game over the years, but it can only grow for so long. A new numbered sequel for Destiny could mean a fresh start, it’ll give Bungie the chance to create a better new player experience and onboard new players, plus it makes the game less intimidating for players to jump in. The current state of Destiny 2 is debatable; some hardcore fans love the game, some hardcore fans have left in droves to play other games. A new numbered sequel is the perfect opportunity to press the hard reset button and migrate all existing players, along with a massive influx of new players.
The random reddit 32638272187 account has since posted a few more messages
“I’ve seen some speculation on this front and want to set the record straight. Codename Payback does not mean we lose in the Final Shape, or after the 3 episodes (though, tbf, I know nothing more than any of you about the episodes). The internal codename of D3 is not a reference to any story events. Rather, Codename Payback refers to Bungie getting payback against themselves by creating something they hope everyone will love. I do not know if there are any plans for Destiny 2 items to carry over into Destiny 3.”
“Destiny 3 is Destiny 3. Not a big dlc. Not a revamp of Destiny 2. Destiny 3, as far as my most recent info goes, is a new game in the franchise. I thought that would be obvious.”
The timing here is interesting, given we’re approaching The Final Shape expansion. That’s due for release in June 2024, then it’s likely the 3 episodes are going to take up the next 12 months, which could lead to a new, unannounced expansion in Summer 2025 or later. Episodes could continue for another iteration, which then leads into Destiny 3 in 2026 or early 2027. It’s worth remembering that Marathon is also in development, which is likely to release in 2025, so whether Bungie has the capacity to maintain Destiny 2, launch Marathon, continue 2 games in a live-service state and develop Destiny 3 at the same time… we’ll have to wait and see.
Here’s some community comments
@jeromepoe946
Honestly I believe D3 would be for the best D2 is so broken apart that it’s impossible to get new players and old players are getting tired of the game. If you make a sequel you’ll need a reason and I believe that’s what episodes are supposed to lead up to then we’ll get a long hiatus while bungie nurtures the newborn marathon testing the waters then maybe spend one more year on that followed by an announcement for D3 and in that time of marathon we see a D1 final age of triumph update where everything is updated and we get a massive overhaul before the new game with time for patches and maybe an exotic mission or the return of wrath to keep people busy a 5-6 months maybe a little more then launch D3.
What we could get I’m not exactly creative enough for that and what I want usually goes against the communities core sentiment ex-I love auto rifles even the they’ll never be up to meta tier and I think bows shouldn’t of been added etc. either way love the game I’m just burnt out from last year’s poor decision making hopefully they keep up what they’ve been doing the past month or so and maybe more vets will continue returning. Just my thoughts I could go on but I won’t waste y’all’s time, if you’re reading this far have a good day/night.
@jesselopez7103
They just need to make destiny 3 already but only exclusive for newer generation consoles and pc
@Baba_Yaga_87
They won’t make another game.. they’ve invested far to much into this game to just leave it for another one
@zenmeteor9545
I feel like if Destiny 3 ever comes, it’d be in the form of a spinoff or just really far in the past or future
Let me know what you think related to Destiny 3 in the comments.