Bungie has come a long way in the last few years. Although it was active throughout the 1990s, Bungie put itself on the map around the turn of the century by starting theHalofranchise. The firstHalogame was an instant hit, and now it’s one of the best known shooter franchises out there. Even though Bungie doesn’t work onHaloanymore, it deserves a ton of credit for making the earliest and perhaps most influential games in the series. Now that it’s leftHaloto Microsoft, Bungie is still doing great thanks toDestinyandDestiny 2.These new looter-shooters have proven that there’s a lot of talent at the studio.
In spite of the hugely influential titles that it’s responsible for, though, Bungie hasn’t produced any new IPsaside fromHaloandDestiny.It’s taken its time expanding outside of these series. However, lately Bungie has been talking a whole lot more about growing beyondDestiny,its chief bastion of profit and publicity. Bungie has made it clear that it wants to make a lot of new IPs in the future. Bungie’s new habit of stressing these plans isn’t too surprising when one remembers a recent move Bungie made. A few years ago, it copyrighted something calledMatter,which sounds like a new game that Bungie wants to release. If Bungie’s new games are going to crop up anytime soon,Matterwill probably lead the charge.
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A Brief History of Bungie’s Matter
Even the most dedicated Bungie fans may not be aware ofMatter,seeing how little is known about it so far. For those who don’t know,theMattercopyright first showedup in Europe in 2018. Even though that discovery turned some heads, it didn’t result in much information. Of course,Destiny 2was still pretty new at the time, so it’s no surprise Bungie wasn’t quite yet making a big deal out ofMatteror publicly teasing it in any way. A couple years later, though, some clues onMatterstarted to shine through. Some job listings connected toMattergive a sense that it’ll be a little bit likeDestiny 2,but very different tonally, and possibly in terms of setting too.
Bungie hasn’t told fans anything aboutMatterdespite all these little discoveries slipping out. Its emphasis has been entirely onDestiny 2’s success. Even so, odds are good thatMatteris a few years into development already, seeing how old the trademark is. It could be that Bungie comes forward and finally says something aboutMatterin the next couple years. Even thoughDestiny 2has had a lot of expansions over the years, it’s old enough now that it’s probablynot a major obstacle toMatteranymore. The question, then, is when exactly Bungie wants to the game to see the light of day. Although it seems like the game should be ready for a reveal sometime soon, Bungie seems to be suggesting that it’s going to take longer than expected.
Matter and Bungie’s Long-Term Schedule
Bungie has been pretty public about upcoming gamesrecently, repeating that it wants to branch out into new IPs. It’d be shocking ifMatterisn’t among the IPs that it want to launch soon. However, Bungie is sending a fairly contrary message. When it talked about its plans for releasing new IPs in April, it said that it wants to have a game unconnected toDestinyout by 2025. That’s still pretty far away, so in a way it’s odd that Bungie is even talking about it. One would expect that, if Bungie is teasing new games, those games would be coming out much closer to 2021. Maybe it’s more important to Bungie to assure fans that it’s working on other projects than it is to actually release those projects anytime soon.
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That leavesMatterin a bit of an odd limbo. IfMatterisn’t coming out for a few years, how is its development going? Is Bungie moving slowly onMatteron purpose? Does it want to keep the majority of its work onDestiny 2for now? That would make sense for the short term, consideringhow importantDestiny 2is to Bungie’s success, but the public conversations about upcoming IPs would suggest Bungie is focusing on the long term. It’s pretty hard to get a read on where Bungie’s new game concept are at in development.
No matter how many projects Bungie has in mind, it seems most likely that the mysteriousMatteris atthe forefront of Bungie’s expansion initiative, just by virtue of how long the trademark has existed.Matterwill probably be the first new game that Bungie talks about in the next couple years, even if it doesn’t come out until 2025. Bungie has had a couple years to assemble the team that’ll work on the game and to start developing some early components of the game. There might be enough content in place forMatterto get a proper reveal in 2022 or 2023.
Matter’s Future and Bungie’s Growth
The mystery aroundMatter’s state of developmentand Bungie’s plans isn’t all bad, though. Frankly, it’s just good to know that Bungie is working on new things and plans on doing more than justDestiny.The studio has garnered a lot of fans and consistently proven that it can deliver high-quality game experiences. Bungie is also growing in confidence and resources, as is proven by the end of its publishing deal with Activision. Bungie has taken on its own publishing responsibilities, which suggests it’s confident that it can deliver on its new IPs without outside support for the releases.
If Bungie has really been working on new gamesfor so long, then fans should at least be optimistic that it won’t be much longer before it talks in detail about what it’s actually up to. At the same time, though, Bungie has probably made the right decision by keepingMatterunder wraps for so long instead of hyping it up publicly for years on end. There’s already enough pressure on Bungie to come up with another strong IP after it made such influential games in the forms ofHaloandDestiny.It’s a good thing that Bungie wants to grow; it deserves to after all it’s done for the game industry. Bungie might not be explicitly talking aboutMatter’s development so far, but all of its hints about future games suggest thatMatterwill someday lead a charge.
