All the leaks about “Destiny Rising” and why it’s basically “Destiny Immortal”

Current and former Bungie employees, some of whom have been fired, some of whom have quit, some of whom are still employed but frustrated, are more than willing to talk about all aspects of the company right now through leaked information. We heard about the new plans for Destiny 2 before they were announced, there was just a ton of marathon information released (some of it by me), and now we’re making the Destiny mobile game, Destiny Rising.

The key information here comes from SkillUp, Game Post, and I have some too, and here’s a summary of what’s going on with Destiny Rising, the upcoming mobile game that’s been in the works for years.

• Destiny Rising is years old and yes, it is still being released despite all the turmoil at Bungie.
• The game is being developed almost entirely by NetEase, formerly of Diablo Immortal, based on a very old investment deal with Bungie that saw very few Bungie employees working on the game. NetEase was reportedly not thrilled about selling Bungie to Sony.
• Destiny Rising is a prequel to Destiny 1 and does not offer the option to play Destiny 2 on mobile.
• There are reports that while it mirrors the gameplay of Destiny, it is a third-person shooter and not a first-person shooter. So I’m not entirely sure how those two statements fit together and I wonder if it isn’t actually an FPS. But that’s what Game Post says and I can’t confirm otherwise.

• The game is hero-focused and you play both characters from the Destiny story in a previous era (there are no characters listed, but Zavala, Ikora, Shaxx, etc. are safe bets). And some new ones. According to one report, this could be in the Warlord era of the series.
• The game is supposed to feature missions, attacks, and possibly even a raid, but that was difficult to pull off since the game time on mobile is supposed to be quite short so as not to impact players’ attention spans too much. I’m not sure if PvP plays a role in that.
• There is a kind of narrative attached to this that is part of Bungie’s contribution and not NetEase’s.
• I’ve heard that the closest parallel here is absolutely NetEase’s Diablo Immortal, a game that was harshly criticized by diehard Diablo fans, but has became a money-maker, producing new content on a regular basis. It is unclear how the game will be monetized and if there will be pay-to-win mechanics/purchases like Diablo Immortal.
• The target audience is not western Destiny 2 players. Maybe it’s not even existing Destiny players. I’m told this is “100% aimed at the Asian market,” where invasive microtransactions are more common and less likely to be poorly received.

• There’s no real indication of when it will come out, despite it being in the works for years. Many are surprised it hasn’t even been teased yet. My theory is that it may be ready, but Bungie doesn’t want to pull a Diablo Immortal and has announced a mobile game that fans will be skeptical about when the base game is in poor shape and player morale is low.
• Supposedly, Bungie won’t be very involved in the marketing and most of it will be left to NetEase. Bungie was content to “let NetEase do what they wanted with the game.” Currently, Sony has essentially nothing to do with it, although it will obviously be in their portfolio.

That’s not to say that current Destiny 2 players can’t enjoy the game, just that they’re not necessarily the target audience here, and whatever microtransaction model this does It could be designed to appeal more to mobile gaming in general and especially to the Asian market with a lot of microtransactions. But yeah, for better or worse, it could become Destiny Immortal.

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