It is now rumored that Bungie is actually working on Destiny 3.
As originally found by Paul Tassi and reported for Forbes, a redditor with the username 32638272187 made this post a month ago:
“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.
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).”
As you can see, they accurately predicted a major gameplay change for Destiny 2: The Final Shape, and simultaneously revealed Destiny 3 was in the works. And the overpowered state that the characters are in in this DLC will apparently be how Destiny 3 will play as well.
Since then, redditor 32638272187 has reiterated here and here that Payback was only a codename, and didn’t mean anything in terms of the story of Destiny 2: The Final Shape. In their words:
“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.”
If this rumor turns out to be true, it seems to completely change the narrative around Destiny 2 and Bungie lately. We had reported on Bungie’s behind-the-scenes problems, with their layoffs of 100 employees last year, and rumors swirling as recently as last month that Sony saw the studio as a failed acquisition, and were planning a takeover.
This new rumor doesn’t mean those layoffs never happened. But, some of the rumors and speculation swirling around claimed that Bungie management was only waiting for their last scheduled payout from the acquisition before they planned to exit the company.
It’s been an incredibly dark picture for Bungie that was painted in the last few weeks. But if they are actually working on a Destiny 3, then the studio hasn’t completely given up on their franchise, on their fans after all.
We don’t know what kind of Bungie we will have to make a Destiny 3, but at the very least, the story for Destiny, and for Bungie, may not be completely over after all.