{"id":75100,"date":"2019-01-11T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-01-11T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2019\/01\/talking_point_what_does_the_bungie_divorce_from_activision_blizzard_mean_for_nintendo"},"modified":"2019-01-11T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-01-11T17:00:00","slug":"talking-point-what-does-the-bungie-divorce-from-activision-blizzard-mean-for-nintendo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/01\/11\/talking-point-what-does-the-bungie-divorce-from-activision-blizzard-mean-for-nintendo\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking Point: What Does The Bungie Divorce From Activision Blizzard Mean For Nintendo?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n
\"Destiny<\/a><\/figure>\n

Breaking news everyone: sci-fi shooter titans Bungie, creator of the Halo<\/strong> and Destiny<\/strong> franchises, has officially divorced from its eight-year partnership with Activision-Blizzard. In a public statement<\/a> released Thursday, Bungie stated:<\/p>\n

\n

Looking ahead, we\u2019re excited to announce plans for Activision to transfer publishing rights for Destiny to Bungie. With our remarkable Destiny community, we are ready to publish on our own, while Activision will increase their focus on owned IP projects.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In the gaming community at large, this is a pretty big deal<\/em>. Activision Blizzard is often measured as the biggest third-party developer in the United States, ahead of EA, and yes, monetarily valued larger than even the entirety of Nintendo. And it\u2019s no surprise why, with Activision Blizzard claiming the best-selling game year after year with the Call of Duty<\/strong> franchise, its acquisition of Candy Crush<\/strong> developer King, and the entire stable of Blizzard franchises such as World of Warcraft<\/strong>, Starcraft<\/strong>, and Diablo<\/strong> \u2013 plus their heavily invested-in esports arm, all raking in money hand over fist.<\/p>\n

But over ten years removed from their headline merger, things aren\u2019t going so cheery at Activision Blizzard these days. Over on the Activision side, having already greatly reduced the scope of the Skylanders<\/strong> brand<\/a>, losing\/firing CFO Spencer Neumann to Netflix<\/a>, and with Forbes reporting<\/a> stocks literally halving in value in just a couple months, the loss of Bungie (and Destiny) leaves Call of Duty as Activision\u2019s sole heavy-hitting franchise in 2019.<\/p>\n

So with this opening, are we suggesting that Destiny is now freed up to somehow travel onto Nintendo\u2019s hotcake portable console? Um, no.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Heroes<\/a>
Heroes of the Storm is one Blizzard title that is struggling to make its mark<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The loss of Bungie changes things for Activision Blizzard long term in a way that is difficult to couch-quarterback. Corporations are big, lumbering creatures, and it\u2019ll take time before that Destiny sized-hole starts to make sense again to both fans and investors (although hardcore fans of Destiny will probably rejoice).<\/p>\n

Instead, we think it\u2019s possible that Nintendo, of all companies, may actually symbolize one short-term, lucrative answer for this new version of Activision Blizzard. Specifically, from the developers over on the Blizzard side \u2013 and even more specifically, in the form of what they might refer to as \u201clow hanging fruit\u201d in the marketing world.<\/p>\n

Recent reporting<\/a> by Jason Schreier over at Kotaku paints a grim picture of corporate cost-cutting on the Blizzard side of things. Most of that culture shift is reportedly internal, with the major exception being the multiplayer online battle arena title Heroes of the Storm<\/strong> announcing unfortunate development cuts<\/a>. This possibly may have been due to the title never quite<\/em> catching fire, or possibly to help alleviate the books after the now-announced Bungie departure. It\u2019s impossible to say for sure. Activision and Blizzard do not exactly operate 1:1, but like all big companies, huge splashes in one area make waves that are felt everywhere<\/em>.<\/p>\n

If those aforementioned cost-cutting measures and the loss of Bungie mean an overall smaller output from Blizzard than in years previous, theoretically that is one way Nintendo may be impacted; smaller projects could have been quietly capsized by the ripples stemming from the departure of Bungie. This is, of course, pure speculation on our part.<\/p>\n