Is Bungie's new IP, Matter, releasing in 2025? Xbox seems to think so
The next original game from Bungie is seemingly just two years away, which potentially means a reveal is not far off.
Bungie has grown itself into a studio that's capable of handling more than a single game. As the developer continues to pump out content for Destiny 2, there's no end in sight for when support for the long-running loot shooter is going to end - even if The Final Shape expansion sounds like the end of the road for major content.
As work on Destiny 2 continues, an off-shoot team (made up of many former Destiny developers) has been working on Marathon, an extraction shooter that carries the name of a classic Bungie game. Marathon was just announced in May, and the developer said it would be going dark for a long while, and re-emerge later to talk specifics.
But if you've been keeping up with Bungie, you may be familiar with another mysterious new project it has in the works: Matter. Bungie trademarked Matter back in 2018, and the studio has been dropping very brief hints about the nature of the project, referring to it as a "whimsical" loot game in job ads.
Now, thanks to the FTC's trial with Microsoft over the latter's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Xbox revealed all the other studios and publishers it considered acquiring before Activision Blizzard, including, of course, Bungie.
As part of that brief, via IGN, Microsoft shared a general overview of the studio, its headcount, future expansion plans, the games it's known for - and, of course, unannounced projects it has in the works.
Matter was one such game, which Microsoft said is expected to be released in 2025. It's worth noting that the filing does not mention Marathon anywhere on it, nor does it list any Destiny 2 expansion after Beyond Light, which came out in 2020. It stands to reason that Microsoft may not have been aware of Marathon's existence at the time of that document's creation, otherwise it would have included something to the effect of "unannounced new game" in the brief.
Nevertheless, if Matter is indeed shooting for a 2025 release, then we may not be that far off some sort of reveal or teaser. Matter could very well be a working title, too, and the official game title may well be something else - though Bungie is fond of its single-word game titles.