For reference (Destiny)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Thursday, August 18, 2016, 14:56 (3018 days ago) @ SIX min WHISTLE
edited by Cody Miller, Thursday, August 18, 2016, 15:26

I have to assume that this is Activision's doing, but Bungie allowed themselves to be put into this position when they choose to go with them as their publisher. Out of the possibly viable options I think either Ubisoft or Square Enix may have been better, but only they really know.

Due to the budget of the game, there were only 5 publishers in existence who could conceivably work with Bungie on Destiny:

1. Activision
2. Microsoft
3. Sony
4. Nintendo
5. EA

Nintendo and EA were ruled out immediately. Sony looked good but they had trouble communicating between Sony US and Sony Japan. That left MS and activision. Activision offered Bungie the chance to keep their IP, which was the tipping point over MS. In retrospect, there are several people at Bungie who would have chosen MS in hindsight. Under MS for Halo, they didn't own the IP but could develop the game almost as if they did. At Activision, it was the opposite; they owned the IP but were developing it almost as if Activision did.

At the time, the best choice was Activision given what they knew. Square and Ubisoft were not even on the table.