Bungie’s Canceled Project Payback Was A Third-Person Spinoff Set In Destiny Universe

Following layoffs at Bungie that affected more than 220 people, more details about what the Sony-owned developer has been up to have emerged, including more information about a canceled Destiny spinoff called project Payback that would have taken the franchise in a much different direction.

According to a report from Bloomberg, Payback would have been played from a third-person perspective, a departure from the first-person perspective used in Destiny. It was said to have taken inspiration from popular free-to-play third-person games like Warframe and Genshin Impact and would have allowed players to explore a large open world while cooperatively battling enemies and solving puzzles.

Payback was canceled two months ago, according to the report, and the majority of Bungie is now working on Marathon, a reboot of an old Bungie IP from the 90s reimagined as an extraction shooter. The Marathon reboot was officially announced last year and is now said to be aiming for a 2025 release. As noted by Bloomberg, Payback was not Destiny 3, which has never been in development.

Some of the studio is still working on Destiny 2 as well, though Bungie is said to be moving away from annual expansion releases. Instead, it will focus on free content updates while also attempting to create a smoother onboarding process for new players, as well as a possible rebranding.

This is the second round of layoffs to hit Bungie recently following Sony’s acquisition of the studio in 2022. Late last year, around 100 Bungie developers were let go and Destiny 2’s The Final Shape expansion and Marathon were both delayed as a result. Bungie CEO Pete Parsons at the time said the company had missed its revenue targets by 45% and was losing money.

He said much the same in a blog post announcing the most recent round of layoffs, stating the developer was “overly ambitious, our financial safety margins were subsequently exceeded, and we began running in the red.” The layoffs were already in the works, according to Game File’s Stephen Totilo, prior to the positive critical reception and release of The Final Shape in June.

In addition to the layoffs, multiple Bungie veterans, including Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy, have departed Bungie this week, parted ways with the developer this week. Around 155 other Bungie developers will be absorbed into Sony Interactive Entertainment, while yet another group of Bungie employees will be spun out to create an entirely new studio under Sony.