Bungie's live service shooter Destiny is a pretty well-established sci-fi franchise, but it was almost something else entirely. In the early days of Destiny's development, it was being conceptualized as more of a fantasy game, seemingly without guns or the ability to fly between various planets. Some newly revealed concept art gave fans a brief glimpse at what that reality would look like.
Destiny has been incredibly successful over the years nonetheless, becoming one of the most popular ongoing games on the market. Despite leaving the beloved IP Halo behind, Bungie has been able to turn Destiny into something it can call its own. It's hard to say whether or not that same level of success would've been found had Bungie gone in the direction it had been originally planning, as it would have strayed relatively far from the studio's roots.
Artist Jaime Jones released some concept art from the early days of Destiny back in 2008, when Bungie was still finishing up its part of the Halo series. The concept art reveals a much more high-fantasy setting, and in one picture, a character can even be spotted wielding some sort of axe. Bungie is currently working on a non-Destiny game, but its not totally clear what the genre will be. Whether or not the studio will revisit some of these previous ideas remains to be seen, but it would be really interesting to see Bungie do something new.
Bungie had begun teasing Destiny back in 2009, through an Easter egg in Halo 3: ODST. Although it was just a simple poster in the background, which didn't mean much at the time, there was clearly a plan in place. The Traveler was still very much apart of the game at that point, but it's unclear if the poster was added after Bungie turned it into a sci-fi game, or if it was still a fantasy title.
Bungie has already been developing its next game for several years, and the title is expected to be out by 2025, meaning it's likely a rather large game. Details are still scarce about the new project, but maybe there's a chance that Bungie has already started planting seeds for it in Destiny 2. Bungie is still working on its beloved sci-fi franchise and will likely continue to for many, many years. Its next game is expected to have multiplayer, though it seems hard to imagine the studio would be able to sustain two massive live-service games simultaneously.
Source: Jaime Jones