Canceled Destiny spinoff reportedly took inspiration from Warframe, Genshin Impact

The future of Destiny 2 sounds a bit bleak following massive shake-ups within Bungie, including the cancelation of a spinoff title.

Two months ago, the spinoff title was canceled, according to a report by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier. Now, two days after 220 workers were laid off, the studio is in turmoil and future plans for the franchise are fluid.

Schreier reported that one of Bungie’s “big bets” on itself with its purchase by PlayStation was a spinoff game within the Destiny universe. The project, codenamed Payback, would not be an FPS but a third-person shooter that would “allow players to use the franchise’s characters to explore a large world while cooperating to battle monsters and solve puzzles.”

According to Schreier, Payback was “a significant departure from the previous two games” that “took elements from popular games such as Warframe and Genshin Impact.” How this would look as a full-fledged game, we may never know, but the premise is sure to excite and disappoint many fans of the franchise.

Schreier reports that free, small-scale drops like this year’s Into the Light will be Destiny 2’s new focus moving forward as “Bungie will look to retain and attract players” with these content updates, including “overhauls to activities that it hopes will appeal to hardcore players.”

This also means Destiny 3 is not yet in development, either. “Bungie is instead looking to create a smoother onboarding process for Destiny 2, such as a rebranding, to attract new players who might be turned off by a game that can now feel impenetrable to those unfamiliar with its ample proper nouns,” Schreier said.

In June, Bungie revealed Codename: Frontiers, which was meant to be content for the series in 2025 and beyond. Now, it’s unclear if plans have changed or if that project is still on track for release sometime next year.