Summary

• Bungie's mysterious game, code-named Gummy Bears, has reportedly changed developers and is now being developed at a new PlayStation studio.
• While primarily a MOBA, the game is rumored to take inspiration from Super Smash Bros., featuring a percentage-based damage system instead of traditional health bars.
• Gummy Bears has been in development for at least three years but could still be years away from release. It is targeting a younger demographic than any prior Bungie game.

A first-party PlayStation game code-named Gummy Bears is said to take significant inspiration from the Super Smash Bros. series, according to a newly emerged report that also reveals other intriguing details about this mysterious project.

The first whispers of Gummy Bears' existence surfaced online in August 2023, when The Game Post reported that a MOBA title with this codename was under development at Bungie. A year later, Bungie announced it was laying off 220 employees—a 17% reduction in its workforce. On that occasion, the Destiny developer revealed that an additional 155 of its staffers would be integrated into Sony Interactive Entertainment in the near future.

These previously confirmed integration efforts have now resulted in Sony establishing a new PlayStation studio, The Game Post reports, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. The new subsidiary, which reportedly consists of around 40 employees, has taken over the development of Gummy Bears. Although the upcoming first-party PlayStation game is likely years away from release, its current stage of development remains unclear. While details on Gummy Bears remain scarce, The Game Post reports that the MOBA will take a page from the Super Smash Bros. playbook.

Gummy Bears Reportedly Won't Have Health Bars, Similar to Smash Bros.

Specifically, Gummy Bears is said to have been designed without traditional health bars, with its health system equivalent serving as a modifier that determines how far a character is knocked back when hit. When the percentage-based damage reaches a high enough level, Gummy Bears characters can even be knocked off the map. This system sounds remarkably similar to the damage percent system utilized by the Super Smash Bros. games.

Gummy Bears will reportedly feature a trio of character classes typical for a MOBA game: Attack, Defense, and Support. Multiple game modes are also said to be part of the package, along with an aesthetic described as cozy, vibrant, and "lo-fi." These descriptors differ significantly from anything Bungie has done before, which The Game Post's sources claim is a deliberate design choice aimed at differentiating Gummy Bears from the rest of the studio's offerings and potentially appealing to a new, younger demographic.

Counting its time in incubation at Bungie, Gummy Bears has reportedly been in development since at least 2022. This newly emerged claim of the project's developer switch aligns with the recent revelation that PlayStation has established a new studio in Los Angeles—at least assuming that this California-based division is the same one that's working on Gummy Bears.