There's an old inside joke about how @Bungie got its name. Only a handful of us ever knew the real story behind it. We called it Death By Bungie. I'm not going to spoil it here.

It's the one where the two guys wash up onto an isolated Island, and the natives that find them give them a choice. Be killed, or submit to 'Bungie'. First guy says how bad can it be, give me 'Bungie'.

What they do to him is very NSFW, then he's free to go.

Second guy says 'that was horrendous, I'll take death'. The native chief goes 'very well you shall have death. DEATH… BY BUNGIE"

I remember when the new Quake came out. I told Jason Jones about it and he agreed to come over and check it out. The whole team crowded around the screen. Jason lasted about thirty seconds and left. Everyone else kept playing. I asked him about it later. His answer was simple. Bungie doesn't copy other people's games. They make their own.

That was the whole company in one sentence.

Which is why the new Marathon hit me the way it did. I watched the trailer and my heart sank. No single player. An extraction shooter. The exact genre everyone else was already piling into. The Jason Jones I knew would have walked out in thirty seconds.

Now there's a name I haven't heard in a long time.

https://xcancel.com/i/article/2070544328158838933

Good stories in there. I've been accused more than once of being a shill for Bungie. I do tend to see the glass as half full. I'm with Tuncer, though. Mourning what could be the end while holding out hope that Bungie can rediscover itself.

I guess the question is: why are you hoping Bungie can rediscover itself? Why are you hitching yourself emotionally to a marque when it no longer represents what attracted you? It's brand loyalty, but to what? What makes Bungie different from any other similarly-sized game company at this point?

That's an honest question on my part; I'm genuinely curious where this comes from or if there's some extant endearing attribute of the company I'm missing.