New Destiny project Payback no longer happening, senior execs depart

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.

That's according to reporting by Gamespot's Tamoor Hussain, Giant Bomb's Jeff Grubb and Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, who all state that Smith and Noseworthy are also now no longer at Bungie.

Details of Payback leaked online back in April, when it was described as "Destiny 3". There were questions at the time over whether the project was still in development. Now, Schreier has confirmed that Payback was more of a spin-off, and was cancelled "a while ago".

According to the previously-leaked details on Payback, the game would have shaken up the Destiny franchise by moving away from a class-based character system. Its name was allegedly a reference to "Bungie getting payback against themselves by creating something they hope everyone will love".

Smith and Noseworthy's departures appear linked to the cancellation of Payback, ahead of the latest round of layoffs which hit Bungie this week, when 220 jobs were lost. Gamespot sources said executive restructuring meant the pair had "no path forward at Bungie".

Both Smith and Noseworthy were Bungie veterans, with the former at the company since 2007. The pair worked closely together on building the Destiny franchise, perhaps memorably on the excellent Taken King expansion. Their departures now further confuse the picture of what Bungie plans to do with Destiny next, following the launch of climactic expansion The Final Shape earlier this year.

Reporting last night by GameFile claimed that Bungie leadership reportedly "overstated" its own financial prospects to Sony, which bought Bungie in 2022 for $3.6bn, leading to the need for this year's brutal layoffs.

Staff have roundly criticised Bungie boss Pete Parsons for the job losses, while affected employees have been speaking out - including one woman made redundant on the eve of her maternity leave.