Renowned insider Jason Schreier has shared new details about Bungie Studio’s secret project codenamed Payback. Development of the game was under the leadership of experienced company veterans Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy, but management decided to shut down production in the summer of 2024 immediately following the release of a major add-on, The Final Shape. The author originally considered this branch to be the mature future of the series as a whole.
The creators will reach a whole new audience unfamiliar with the rich history of the original universe. As the project progressed, the show’s audience gradually aged, making it difficult for the studio to attract new talent. The new game aims to rectify this problem by shifting the focus to specific characters, allowing users to directly control a variety of heroes from the famous space world.
In its structure, the gameplay is reminiscent of the popular mechanics of controlling various characters in Genshin Impact, although the developers do not intend to copy the monetization formula of the popular game in HoYoverse. The team has long had doubts about assigning a full digital index to the game, as the concept is so different from the studio’s usual shooters.