Bungie and Activision are parting ways after entering a publishing agreement in 2010, with Bungie maintaining publishing rights to the Destiny franchise.

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Thank you Guardians. It’s been an honor and a privilege to help bring the world of Destiny to life for you. pic.twitter.com/EB1y19OTD8 — Activision (@Activision) January 10, 2019

Bungie made the announcement through Bungie.net today. In the official statement, Bungie says, "With Activision, we created something special. To date, Destiny has delivered a combination of over 50 million games and expansions to players all around the world."Following this eight-year run, Activision has transferred publishing rights for Destiny to Bungie, allowing the developer to fully control and publish its own property. Bungie further stated, "With our remarkable Destiny community, we are ready to publish on our own, while Activision will increase their focus on owned IP projects."The planned transition process is already underway in its early stages, with Bungie and Activision both reportedly committed to making sure the handoff is as seamless as possible. Bungie says it has learned a lot from Forsaken, Destiny 2’s Blizzard Customer Service also confirmed on Twitter that Destiny 2 will continue to receive full support on BattleNet for PC players, and that no service or gameplay disruptions are expected. What else is in store for Destiny 2 beyond the current roadmap is unknown, but it’s possible Bungie will aim to publish a third Destiny game on its own in the future. Following the announcement, Destiny 2 director Luke Smith tweeted out the line “Guardians make their own fate,” a famous quote from the original game.

This publishing partnership first produced the original Destiny in 2014, and later Destiny 2 in 2017. It’s possible this split was made possible after Destiny 2 had reportedly not performed as well as Activision had hoped, though Bungie is likely happy to have regained its publishing autonomy regardless.

Last year, Bungie announced a partnership with the Chinese tech giant NetEase to "explore new directions" and "build new worlds,” suggesting this split from Activision has been in the works for quite some time.

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Bungie and Activision originally entered a publishing partnership in April 2010 . At the time, a 10-year exclusive publishing deal was announced, though Bungie has maintained its independence as a studio outside of this.Prior to this agreement, Bungie left Microsoft in 2007 in order to become an independent company, ultimately leaving publishing rights for Halo in Microsoft’s control.

Colin Stevens is a news writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter