Some reports in recent months have claimed that Bungie is working on Destiny 3 under the codename Payback, but in the immediate aftermath of another brutal round of mass layoffs at the studio, newly emerging information is suggesting otherwise. In recently published Bloomberg report, journalist Jason Schreier has claimed that Payback – which was a spinoff, not Destiny 3 – was cancelled by Bungie two months ago.
Instead, as per Schreier, Destiny 3 is not in development, and has yet to enter development so far. While there’s obviously the chance that the studio does get to work on the next mainline numbered Destiny entry at some point in the future, as per the report, its current focus remains Destiny 2.
More specifically, it’s claimed that Bungie is instead focusing on coming up with “a smoother onboarding process” for Destiny 2. The looter shooter has attracted growing criticism over the years of feeling too inapproachable for fresh players, but Bungie is hoping to attract more newcomers to the game going forward.
That said, it’s also claimed that the studio is pivoting its content strategy for Destiny 2, which will entail replacing annual large-scale expansions with smaller content updates. Read more on that through here.