Director Luke Smith writes a note about Destiny's 'bright' independent future

Bungie's weekly update is typically a wealth of information about balance changes and upcoming features for Destiny 2, but this week's starts with something a bit different. Luke Smith, Destiny's franchise director, wrote in with a note about Bungie's split from Activision and its "bright future," while also indicating that Bungie's relationships with partners who have helped out on Destiny seem to be wrapping up. He thanked High Moon Studios for co-developing Forsaken, and Vicarious Visions for Destiny 2's PC port and their current work on some unreleased Destiny 2 content that's still hush-hush.

Smith writes that Bungie is currently "continuing to build the content we’ve promised for the Annual Pass," and noted some lessons learned from the recent Black Armory release. More interesting, though, are his comments pertaining to Bungie's independence from Activision and what that means for Destiny.

"We created the universe and we hold its future entirely in our hands. The vast majority of the team is hard at work envisioning future experiences, enemies, and ways to play the Guardian you've been building since 2014. We're going to keep doing that.

"We're thinking about what it means to be truly independent, what it means to self-publish, and crucially, what Destiny's future can now look like for our players."

Then there's this bit, which our resident Destiny experts tell me is likely a reference to beloved Destiny 1 raid Vault of Glass. Could it be making a comeback in 2019?

"When I look ahead and think about Destiny and where it could go, I see a bright future, with roots in a memorable past. Not everything has been lost in the dark corners of time."

Head to the weekly update to read the long list of balance changes and updates that follows.

Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little bit of everything, but he'll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.

When he's not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it's really becoming a problem), he's probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza by volume (deep dish, to be specific).