"It's been a welcome change," community manager David Dague says.

Moving on from Halo to Destiny was a "liberating" experience for Bungie, according to community manager David "Deej" Dague. Speaking with USA Today, Dague said the studio won't soon forget about its Halo days, but stressed that shifting to a new franchise was an important move for the company.

"We'll never turn a blind eye to the accomplishments that come from the Halo era at Bungie," Dague said. "But as creators, as artists, as people with imaginations for how games can be new and different, and exciting, it was pretty liberating, actually, to start with a blank canvas and say, 'What sort of story do we want to tell now?'"

Dague went on to say that Halo, from its start in 2001, was intended as a game that could "stand on its own." That game proved to be a hit, and the series has since shifted more than 50 million copies, making it a juggernaut in gaming. That's all well and good, Dague says, but he admits, "There wasn't a lot of planning done well in advance to support that sort of thing."

With Destiny, however, Bungie started development with a ten-year, Lord of the Rings-sized plan in place. "We are accepting that challenge in advance," Dague said about Destiny and the way in which Bungie has thought about its future already.

Leaving Halo behind was an idea supported by many at Bungie, Dague says. "We had a lot of fun stretching our legs and challenging ourselves to explore some new territory [with Destiny]. And it's been a welcome change for a lot of people on the team who had kept their imaginations rooted in that United Nations Space Command for so many years."

Development on the Halo series is now handled by Microsoft's 343 Industries. The next major entry in the series is this November's Xbox One bundle Halo: The Master Chief Collection, which includes HD versions of Halo 1-4, as well as a beta key for this year's Halo 5: Guardians beta.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/destiny-dev-it-was-liberating-to-move-on-from-halo/1100-6422290/

Guess it was also liberating to hype a mediocre game... But that's none of my business.

I dont like Halo but if you told me Destiny was the new Halo I would believe it.

They probably hit burnout working on one franchise for so many years. It's not surprising.

I can imagine. I'm really glad they finally got to make a sci-fi FPS for a change.

'What sort of story do we want to tell now?'"

Good one Deej. :p

"Liberating move from Halo":
AI companion that plays the roll of Cortana yet looks like 343 Guilty Spark
Cabals use jetpacks with the exact animation of brutes
Hobgoblin uses Armor lock from Reach. (As soon as you shoot him which is trash like kids from Reach)
Variations of BR AR DMR and Pistol as primary weapons (Each of which primary weapons in different Halos)
Knight uses same type of shield as Prometheans from Halo 4.
Bubble Shield
Sticky Grenade
Overshield
Speed Boost
Invisibility
Huge bug type of enemy where you have to take each of the legs out first then shoot the energy core.
Dropships.
Vehicles that have same properties as Ghost and Revenant.


Sure Bungie, I bet it was so liberating.

I can imagine for most devs, working on the same IP on and on can get boring. Destiny allowed them to explore a new story, albeit a bad one, but with new gameplay mechanics such as the online aspects to the story & multiplayer, while retaining their top-in-class gunplay & snappy controls.

Liberating from being talented :) *cough cough           JK or am I? yes I am! or maybe not? who knows :)

Anywaysa....Destiny can't be too bad, but certainly is overhyped to an extent!