More details emerge on Payback, Bungie’s cancelled third-person Destiny spin-off

More details have reportedly emerged on Payback, Bungie‘s now-cancelled project.

According to a new Bloomberg report by Jason Schreier, Payback was an “incubation project” that would be set in the Destiny universe.

Rather than a full-blown Destiny 3, Payback was to be a spin-off that would be played with a third-person perspective rather than Destiny’s typical first-person view.

According to Schreier’s report, the game would “allow players to use the franchise’s characters to explore a large world while cooperating to battle monsters and solve puzzles”, and would take inspiration from Genshin Impact and Warframe.

It’s also claimed that Payback was cancelled two months ago, with most of its team moved over to work on Bungie’s upcoming game Marathon.

The report corroborates comments made by journalist Jeff Grubb, who recently reported that Bungie veterans Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy had left the company following the cancellation of Payback.

“Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy are no longer at Bungie, they were let go,” Grubb said on his Game Mess Decides podcast. “They were caught in the executive and leadership shakeup mentioned in the blog. Payback has been shelved.”

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Bungie veterans Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy have reportedly left

The pair were said to be working on a new game in the Destiny universe

Grubb later clarified his comments, explaining that despite saying they were “let go”, it was more accurate to say they “left due to the leadership restructuring”.

Last week Bungie announced that it was laying off 220 staff (roughly 17% of the studio), with a further 155 staff being “integrated” into Sony Interactive Entertainment.

According to Stephen Totilo’s Game File newsletter which cites three separate sources, it’s claimed that these cuts were already planned by early 2024, and were set to happen regardless of the success of Destiny expansion The Final Shape, which was released in June.