With Sony and Microsoft on a spending bender as of late, yet another major studio has been swooped up to the tune of $3.6B. Last week it was revealed that the long-time developers of the Halo and Destiny games, Bungie, will be coming under the Sony umbrella.
And no matter how you feel about these acquisitions, this is sure to shake some things up in the gaming sphere, including the possible revival of some dormant series. Here are three Bungie franchises we think Sony should revive.
Killzone
Bungie Franchises Sony Should Revive
Horizon Zero Dawn and Death Stranding are games that often come to mind when people talk about the power of the Decima engine. But it was actually Killzone: Shadow Fall back in 2013 that introduced the world to one of the best video game engines still being used today. And even before Decima came onto the scene, the Killzone franchise consistently featured some of the best visuals of their respective generations.
However, Guerilla changed directions in 2013 when it launched Horizon Zero Dawn. The Dutch studio is making fantastic games and selling millions of copies of them. And thanks to that, it seems like Killzone is nothing more than just a memory at this point. And that’s truly a shame since Killzone was truly just hitting its stride. Sure, Shadow Fall was a bit of a stumble critically, but it still performed well commercially.
To be fair, the first title was a bit rocky as well, but Guerilla got a second chance and that’s what finally let the franchise find its footing. It exemplified what would make the rest of the following Killzone games great. It had a good story, engaging gunplay, a wide assortment of light and heavy weapons, and some of the best graphics seen in games at that point. Bungie could even bring back the classic Warzone mode which featured 32 players split into two factions in a rotating assortment of missions like defending a target, or searching out a specific target and destroying it.
It’s understandable that recency bias may cloud what people think of Killzone since the last game to come out was so exceptionally average. But if anybody could make at least a competent and enjoyable Killzone, it would absolutely be Bungie. Sure, most of the original Halo team has moved on, but the quality of shooting gameplay in Destiny proves that the current team is more than capable of putting out fun and engaging content.
Myth
Bungie Franchises Sony Should Revive
Another possible return with Bungie joining Sony is the Myth franchise. This RTS series is a deep-cut classic PC title that has mostly been forgotten by the modern gaming world. Whenever people talk about Bungie, it’s always in reference to Halo or Destiny. These games are so rarely talked about to the point where Destiny fans that know about Bungie’s history with Halo and Microsoft may not even recognize the name Myth.
Myth entered the fray of the RTS genre early on into its inception and it came out swinging. The level design is solid and anyone can appreciate that. Yet, the gameplay is certainly not for the faint of heart. Myth is notoriously difficult even for the most experienced RTS fans. The wide range of units made it challenging yet incredibly rewarding to master. Most importantly, Myth was the title that caught Microsoft’s eye and eventually led to Bungie’s purchase in 2000.
The only issue at this point is reacquiring the rights to the Myth franchise. When Bungie joined Microsoft back in 2000, they gave up Myth’s development rights to Take-Two Interactive. Since then, the parent company of major developers like Rockstar and 2K has published a whopping total of one Myth game. And to top it off, it was the worst-reviewed title in the series.
Take-Two hasn’t shown any public interest in bringing back Myth, and now Bungie finally has the backing of Sony to potentially get the IP back. Plus, the RTS genre is a bit of a blind spot for Sony right now. A title like Myth in its niche genre could at least have a chance to be successful with proper marketing as well as big names like Bungie and Sony behind the project.
Resistance
Bungie Franchises Sony Should Revive
Resistance is probably the closest thing to Halo in terms of PlayStation-exclusive franchises. And that’s a bit of a stretch. Sadly, it never gained the massive audience that Halo maintains to this day. And that’s truly a shame because it was a solid sci-fi shooter. The game all reviewed relatively well, but they never really caught on. That could be thanks in part to the high cost of the PS3 at launch, but that’s a discussion for another day.
It has been about a decade since any Resistance game saw the light of day on home or handheld consoles. Since then, Insomniac Games has not even so much as hinted at their interest in continuing the shooter series. And that’s understandable since they’ve had tremendous success with Spider-Man, Ratchet & Clank, and they’re currently deep in work on Wolverine.
Resistance was one of the best shooters of its time. Not only does it look great, but it plays exceptionally well. The game has a wide variety of guns that helped your arsenal never feel stale. On top of that, Resistance tells an intriguing story about how an alien invasion of Earth changed the course of history so the atrocities of WWII like the Holocaust, the atomic bombings, and the Bataan death march never happened.
If anyone can revive Resistance and reintroduce it to the world, it would be Bungie. Although the studio has been apart from Halo since Reach, Destiny is solid proof that the team is more than capable of creating stunning and extremely entertaining sci-fi worlds. Plus, Bungie would certainly be able to come up with some ridiculously fun firearms based in this alternative early 50s sci-fi world.
As a little bonus, we’ve also thrown in something Bungie and Sony can have free of charge that we think would be a really great idea: A Destiny television series or movie franchise!
Destiny Series or Movies
Back in the day, before Destiny 2 went free to play, Bungie and Sony had a special exclusivity deal that saw the PS4 get exclusive content for a few years after launch. After that deal ended, exclusive content in Destiny 2 became a thing of the past. All content that you could find on PlayStation also came to Xbox and PC.
But that doesn’t mean Sony has given up on another exclusive with Destiny. And that very well may be the exclusive rights to produce a Destiny TV show or movie. Sony is no stranger to turning its video game properties into movies or shows like Ratchet & Clank and more recently with the upcoming The Last of Us show and the Uncharted film.
And if you have any doubts that there’s enough content in Destiny to write an entire TV franchise, then you’re probably not too familiar with the games. The tarot cards themselves in the original Destiny carry a ton of lore and deeper symbolism along with them. Reddit user kourge even has an in-depth write-up on what they mean.
Additionally, the fan-created Destiny: Solas gives us a look at how a Destiny show could work. You don’t necessarily need to follow any of the main stories from the game. Instead, a smaller story about an interesting and endearing character is all you need. The overall lore of the world in Destiny is already established and Solas proves you can just throw a unique story into that world and produce content that’s wildly enjoyable.
No matter what your opinion is of video game films and TV, there’s no doubt that studios will keep pumping out more content to further flesh out video game worlds. It’s clear that there have been some rumblings at Bungie about expanding the Destinty universe possibly beyond video games since last year. And now with the backing of Sony’s movie and TV studios, it seems like they may be able to make this vision come to fruition.
Published: Feb 9, 2022 12:57 pm