New Bungie Game Described as “Comedic” with RPG Elements

Bungie is ready to start work on its next game, which it's describing as "comedic" with RPG elements, a sandbox format, an in-game economy, and combat system not unlike the one in Destiny.

A new Bungie job listing seems to shed some light on the studio’s next franchise, according to IGN. Per the outlet, a listing on the Bungie career page for an incubation art director describes this new project as “something comedic with lighthearted and whimsical characters,” suggesting that the developer’s next title will be a bit different in tone from Destiny or Halo.

Two other listings reveal a few other tiny, but interesting details about the new game. Bungie is looking for an incubation investment designer to work on “a wide variety of pursuit and loot systems,” indicating that the game will feature looting that’s possibly not unlike the systems in Destiny. The listing also mentions an “overarching game economy,” which could be a hint at microtransactions and in-game currency.

The most interesting bit from this second listing is that the job requires experience with “designing, documenting, and executing itemization, investment, or any other fundamental RPG game system at any scale” as well as for the investment designers to “work in tandem with our sandbox and economy teams to build and distribute items to our players.” This suggests that the game will resemble an open-world experience and that it will feature RPG elements. Again, the resemblance to Destiny is hard to ignore.

The third listing is for an incubation senior/lead combat designer, who will “dive deep into combat systems such as AI, weapons, armor, and abilities to make them sing,” meaning players should still expect the emphasis on combat that has always been a trademark of Bungie’s games.

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We’ve known Bungie was working on a new IP since 2018. The company took a $100m investment from Chinese tech giant NetEase that would “empower us to build new worlds and invite players, new and old, to join us there. They’ll help us support separate teams inside Bungie to bring our newest ambitions to life.”

That same year, Bungie registered a trademark for something called Matter, which could be the project the developer is hiring for now. Bungie CEO Pete Parsons told IGN in 2019 that “by 2025, we have a pretty specific path to make sure we transform Destiny and that we have other franchises within the marketplace,” suggesting that the next game could be out by 2025 at the latest. If that’s the timeline Bungie has set for itself, then the studio still has plenty of time to announce and release this new game.

We will of course keep an eye out for any updates from Bungie, which has also confirmed that it has plans for Destiny 2 into 2022. So you shouldn’t worry about your favorite Bungie Action MMO being sidelined by Matter.