Details on one of Bungie’s upcoming new IPs has come out, thanks to new job openings from the company.
As reported by Gamesual, several job openings that Bungie have posted on their own site seem to point towards the same single project, and it creates a picture of a game that won’t be like anything Bungie has ever made before.
The most notable descriptions of the project indicate that it will have a stylized art style, and a comedic theme with lighthearted characters. Now, this project will still be a competitive online action game, most likely a multiplayer shooter. So, it isn’t like Bungie is making a complete turnaround to making their own Angry Birds or Super Mario Bros. But it will be a diversion from the deep sci-fi military themes of their most famous games, Halo, and Destiny.
Of course, there are several online multiplayer games now with that stylized art style, and lighthearted tone. Splatoon and Overwatch may be what first comes to mind with most gamers, but games like Fortnite and Valorant are also designed in a way that they can sometimes be taken seriously, and sometimes emphasize that humorous side.
There’s definitely a precedent here for what Bungie is presumably targeting, but it will be entirely new for Bungie themselves.
This title is being made on Unreal, as opposed to Bungie’s proprietary Tiger Engine. Presumably, the reason for this is its planned multiplatform release. In fact, this game could even go to mobile. This platform is where it can potentially make the most income. However, it definitely isn’t easy to design a game to include mobile among its many platforms.
What this all adds up to is a project that will look very simplistic to casual observers, but may be intended to have broad mainstream appeal. But then, the job listings also look for people who are familiar with live service games, or games as a service.
So it does look more and more likely that Bungie is aiming for a new property that they can stake out as their own personal Fortnite. It may not necessarily also be a battle royale game, but it does look like Bungie is staking out the same personal vicinity that Fortnite currently occupies.
Bungie is presumably not in the best of shape these days, as a sudden spate of layoffs led to large scale speculation about the company, its management, its relationship with Sony, and even its future. But if it can deliver on its ambitions with this title, they can run it all back.
