Destiny fans, be on alert. Bungie has made a hiring decision that may just hint at future plans for their signature franchise. The studio has hired Bridget O’Neill as its new Senior Director. As can be seen on their LinkedIn page, Bridget just recently worked as art director for Riot Games, and also put some time in at Blizzard Games and over a decade going up the ladder at Pokemon Company before that.
Bridget’s hiring is significant because, as also indicated on her LinkedIn, she helped develop Arcane, the League of Legends spinoff TV series that’s won awards from the Annies, the Primetime Emmys, the Hollywood Critics Association TV Awards, and the Billboard Music Awards.
However, this speculation isn’t happening solely because of Bungie. It must be understood this hire was really made by Bungie’s new owner, Sony. Beyond even the PlayStation brand, Sony distinguishes itself from other megacorporations in its interest in dipping its toes in both the physical hardware for different types of media and also as the owner of those media itself. In 1966, Sony bought a stake in CBS Records, eventually taking over its business completely as Sony Music. In 1989, Sony bought both Columbia Pictures, one of the big five studios of Hollywood, alongside Tristar Pictures. And, of course, in 1994 the company officially entered the video game hardware business with the PlayStation. It’s all part of a broader vision for technology and entertainment that is unique to Sony.
Perhaps most significant to this current news, however, is the formation of Sony Pictures Animation in 2002. This came about when Sony failed to find a buyer for their visual effects unit, Sony Pictures Imageworks, and then decided to turn things around, given the popularity of 3D animation companies like Pixar and Dreamworks, to enter the business itself. While not as successful as those animators, Sony Pictures Imageworks has the likes of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Hotel Transylvania, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, and The Mitchells vs. The Machines under their belt.
It’s the prospect of the people who worked on the Spider-Verse movie and the League of Legends show working together on a Destiny project, more likely also an animation project itself, that has fans excited.
As popular and successful as the Destiny games have been, there really hasn’t been much in terms of transmedia projects for it. We had previously covered a surprising fashion magazine project for the franchise, that went over with the fans about as well as can be expected.
Still, Bungie and Sony can do with the franchise what they want. Activision was not hesitant to let go of the potential moneymaker onto the then-independent Bungie, citing that the work that had to be put into the franchise was tying their hands from working on other projects. For a franchise that big to get the broad coverage it deserves, a bigger push into spinoffs in other media is inevitable. And what project would be more fitting than a cartoon? You could say an animation project was always in Bungie’s destiny.
Source: TheGamer
