Bungie Store

The **Bungie Store** is a webstore selling merchandise themed after Bungie and its entertainment franchises. It was created by Bungie as early as 1996, attached to the studio's site and selling CD copies of early Bungie titles like *Pathways Into Darkness* and *Marathon*, as well as related t-shirts and guide books. The site has seen many iterations since its inception, as Bungie grew and its franchises increased in popularity. In recent years, the site has been dominated by Destiny merchandise, with dozens of unique items available for sale at any given time. The Bungie Rewards program, began in 2018, has also made its home within the Bungie Store.

## History

### Pre-Halo Era (1996–2000)

The Bungie Store began as a page within Bungie's website, which was then bungie.com, rather than the bungie.net fans have become familiar with today. As mentioned, it was active as early as the year 1996, and primarily sold CD copies of Bungie's library of games at the time, including *Pathways Into Darkness*, *Marathon*, *Marathon 2: Durandal*, *Marathon Infinity*, and *Abuse*. However, various t-shirts as well as guide books for *Pathways Into Darkness* and *Marathon* were also available. This webpage would see further iterations, as did bungie.com, throughout the rest of the decade. Notably, it was redesigned in 1998, selling a slightly expanded stock, now including items such as hats and posters. This version of the store was then moved to its own domain, store.bungie.com, and completely redesigned later that year. Now selling items based on Bungie's then-upcoming title, *Oni*.

Microsoft would acquire Bungie in 2000, as was announced on June 19th that year. This would result in a decent shakeup at the studio, with many team members electing not to stay at Bungie during the transition. One such employee was Jim Ruiz, who was responsible for running the Bungie Store. He explains this in his parting message, as posted on the website's homepage after the announcement in June. Furthermore, he states that the Bungie Store will be on hiatus for an unknown amount of time, in his absence; but that it would likely return in the future, albeit in a different form. Due to this, the Bungie Store would cease taking orders as of June 30, 2000 at 12:00 PM CDT, and customer service would be offered until July 7, 2000 at 7:00 PM CDT.

### Halo Era (2000–2008)

The Bungie Store would see no drastic changes during its hiatus, and Jim Ruiz himself would end up back at Bungie in November 2000 to helm the Bungie Store's revival. It reopened on January 30, 2000, with no visual differences. However, it had been changed internally to integrate with Microsoft's web structure. To celebrate the store's reopening, an exclusive offer was available for a free poster inspired by *Oni* included with orders containing a copy of the title.

Late into the summer of 2001, the Bungie Store experienced another hiatus while the site prepared to transition to a new ecommerce platform. More specifically, Bungie wanted to reconcile longtime issues the store faced in its past iteration, which included issues with placing orders on Mac devices, as well as problems fulfilling international orders. In the interim, the store advertised a giveaway for a hand-sculpted statue of a Covenant Elite from the at the time soon to be released *Halo: Combat Evolved*, which Bungie commissioned employee Juan Ramirez to complete. To enter a drawing for the sculpture, fans would have to register an account for the new site, and join its mailing list. The winner would be contacted and announced on September 3, 2001.

After nearly a year of wait, the Bungie Store finally relaunched on May 6, 2002, now powered by eCompanyStore. This new version of the store was stocked with Halo-inspired items, and its branding featured the Covenant Grunt enemies as seen in the franchise's debut entry. At the time, the store also featured a discount program for dedicated fans that constituted what is known as the Seventh Column. Each chapter of fans within this Seventh Column would receive a coupon each month for 40% off of orders of $100 USD or more, incentivizing those within each chapter to band together to place a group order from which each participant would save on their item. The site would continue to be updated until its retirement on August 31, 2004, seeing new items such as soundtracks, posters, apparel, action figures, and more during its run. This would mark the end of Bungie's merchandising partnership with eCompanyStore, and a new store was anncounced to be in the works, with no disclosed launch window.

This last move would mark the last time the Bungie Store has been moved to a new URL to the present day. On September 17, 2004, the next iteration of the Bungie Store launched, this time in partnership with Sunrise Identity. The store would continue to sell Halo and general Bungie themed items, and saw another cosmetic update on September 4, 2007, moving away from the early Xbox design elements as seen on the site previously. The store would follow this trend throughout the remainder of Bungie's tenure with Microsoft, which would end when the studio officially became independent from Microsoft, as announced on October 5, 2007. Existing stock of Halo merchandise would continue to be sold on the Bungie Store for the remainder of its time with Sunrise Identity.

### Post-Halo Era (2009–2013)

The Bungie Store was taken offline on June 19, 2008, as Bungie opted to update the site and shift ecommerce platforms once more. Replacing Sunrise Identity was an Amazon backend, and the Bungie Store finally resurfaced on November 3, 2009. The only Halo-related items available for purchase at that point was copies of recent Halo titles and original soundtracks, as Bungie no longer owned the rights to Halo merchandising. For the time, the store would continue to sell items themed around Bungie and occasionally its older titles, such as *Marathon*. It would also sell copies of *Halo: Reach* and its special editions as the title released in 2010. The store would receive another facelift in early 2011, attaining a design more recognizable to what the store would look like for the majority of the 2010s.

The first Destiny-inspired merchandise was sold on the Bungie Store as early as November 2011, albeit unbeknownst to fans at the time; as *Destiny* was not to be revealed until 2013. The "See You Starside" collection became available as part of the Bungie Store's Black Friday 2011 sale on November 25, 2011. The collection consisted of an array of items brandishing what we now know as the Tricorn, the icon of the Destiny franchise. Additional pre-Destiny items became available as part of the Bungie Day celebration in 2012. These items included t-shirts representing each of the three factions found in *Destiny*, New Monarchy, Dead Orbit, and Future War Cult. Alongside these items, a new hoodie was available as part of the "See You Starside" collection.

### Destiny Era (2013–Present)

Bungie's next IP, *Destiny*, was revealed on February 17, 2013. And with it came the first officially designated Destiny merchandise items, as seen on the Bungie Store. New shirts and decals were available, as well as a poster and a limited edition 150-piece lithograph depicting concept art of the Fallen. The store's stock remained largely the same up until E3 2013, which began on June 11th that year. To commemorate the occasion, a new product collection became available on the Bungie Store known as the E3 collection. It contained nearly a dozen unique t-shirts displaying iconography from *Destiny*. More items were added the following month for the week-long Bungie Day celebration in 2013. The accompanying Bungie Store sale began on July 6, 2013, and a set of Guardian banners as well as another limited edition lithograph were made available. The Buried City lithograph depicted concept art of the structures found on Mars in *Destiny*, and was limited to 150 pieces. A set of posters and bottles depicting each of the Guardian classes as well as a themed holiday card were added to the Bungie Store for the Black Friday 2013 sale, which were the last Destiny-themed items added to the site in 2013.

The Bungie Store would see sparse stock updates throughout the first half of 2014. This was until the site relaunched using the Shopify platform on June 18, 2014, after being taken offline for a number of weeks prior. This iteration of the Bungie Store would remain active for the duration of *Destiny's* lifespan and well into that of *Destiny 2*, only being retired in 2021. To celebrate the relaunch of the store, a new lineup of Destiny merchandise was available. The store would continue to see stock updates through 2014 and the following years, commonly adding apparel, drinkware, artwork, and collectibles. Many of the current staples of the Bungie Store began during this time, including the Destiny Series Pins and Bungie Series Pins which began in 2016 and have each seen multiple additions annually. Many of the products by merchandising partners Bungie worked with through Activision such as Mega Construx, McFarlane Toys, and Funko were also commonly sold on the Bungie Store. The highly exclusive Bungie Rewards program also began during this period, starting with the launch of *Forsaken* in 2018. It offered and continues to offer specially-designed apparel and collectors items which could only be purchased using reward codes earned by attaining relevant player achievements in *Destiny 2*.

Bungie and Activision would part ways in early 2019, as announced on January 10, 2019. This would allow Bungie complete control over the Destiny franchise, which naturally extended to its merchandising as well. While this had more of an effect on agreements for licensed merchandise with various companies, it also shifted what Bungie was able to sell on the Bungie Store. Namely, Destiny collector's editions were sold on the Bungie Store for the first time that year, as seen with the Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Collector's Edition. Collector's editions for the following expansions were also exclusively available on the Bungie Store.

Most recently, the Bungie Store relaunched in July 2021. During the shift, Bungie would leave the Shopify platform and move to a new ecommerce platform. The launch of the new site was initially scheduled to occur on July 1, 2021, however the date was pushed back to July 20, 2021. One of the primary functions of this redesign was to better integrate the Bungie Rewards program into the store in order to simplify the process of purchasing items offered by the program. In doing this, players would be able to link their Bungie accounts to their Bungie Store account, enabling the store to notify fans of their Bungie Rewards eligibility directly, thus alleviating the need to redeem a unique discount code from the Bungie Rewards webpage on Bungie.net. Additionally, these changes allowed fans to order multiple Bungie Rewards items in one order. This was previously impossible due to the fact that the past iteration of the store only allowed for one code to be entered per checkout. Aside from this, the store functions largely the same on the user level, with the exception of a bolstered user account section. An entirely new visual design and layout was also implemented during this shift. Members of the previous iteration of the site would have to reset their passwords to transfer their accounts to the new platform. As an incentive, Bungie offered an Emblem, *New Blue*, to fans who changed their passwords before the end of July that year. Emblems would be distributed to eligible fans starting on August 6, 2021.

## Destiny Merchandise

PinsBungie RewardsCommunity Artist SeriesDestiny 2: Shadowkeep Collector's EditionDestiny 2: Beyond Light Collector's EditionDestiny 2: The Witch Queen Collector's EditionDestiny 2: Lightfall Collector's Edition
## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Bungie. *Bungie Store*. Archived by Wayback Machine 31 October 1996.
2. ↑ Bungie. *Bungie Store*. Archived by Wayback Machine 17 January 1999.
3. ↑ Bungie Store. *Bungie Store*. Archived by Wayback Machine 27 November 1999.
4. ↑ Bungie Store. *The Bungie Store*. Archived by Wayback Machine 29 February 2000.
5. ↑ Ding. (19 June 2000). *Doug Zartman to leave Bungie!*. Halo.Bungie.Org. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
6. ↑ Bungie. (16 June 2000). *Microsoft to Acquire Bungie Software*. Archived by Wayback Machine 15 August 2000.
7. ↑ R, Jim. *Greetings to the Bungie Store Target Market, and Good Bye!*. Bungie Store. Archived by Wayback Machine 21 July 2021.
8. ↑ Wu, L. (11 November 2020). *Bungie Store to make a comeback!*. Halo.Bungie.Org. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
9. ↑ Wu, L. (30 January 2000). *Bungie Store reopens*. Halo.Bungie.Org. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
10. ↑ Bungie Store. *Welcome to the rejuvenated, relaunched Bungie Store!*. Archived by Wayback Machine 1 February 2001.
11. ↑ Bungie Store. *Welcome to the New Bungie Store!*. Archived by Wayback Machine 25 September 2001.
12. ↑ Bungie Store. *Bungie Store Sweepstakes Official Rules*. Archived by Wayback Machine 24 October 2001.
13. ↑ Wu, L. (6 May 2002). *The Bungie Store opens for business*. Halo.Bungie.Org. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
14. ↑ Bungie Store. *The Bungie Store*. eCompanyStore. Archived by Wayback Machine 7 June 2002.
15. ↑ Bungie. *Bungie Store Discount Explained*. Archived by Wayback Machine 18 June 2002.
16. ↑ Bungie Store. *Dear Bungie Store Shoppers*. eCompanyStore. Archived by Wayback Machine 5 August 2004.
17. ↑ Bungie Store. *Bungie Store*. Archived by Wayback Machine 19 September 2004.
18. ↑ Wu, L. (17 September 2004). *Capitalism is better with new clothes*. Halo.Bungie.Org. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
19. ↑ Wu, L. (4 September 2007). *Bungie Store gets a facelift, new goodies*. Halo.Bungie.Org. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
20. ↑ Frankie. (5 October 2007). *Bungie Announces Independence: Press Release*. Bungie. Archived by Wayback Machine 18 May 2014.
21. ↑ Bungie Store. *Bungie Store*. Archived by Wayback Machine 2 June 2008.
22. ↑ Wu, L. (19 June 2008). *The Bungie Store has Left the Building*. Halo.Bungie.Org. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
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27. ↑ Bungie Store. *Bungie Store*. Archived by Wayback Machine 4 March 2011.
28. ↑ DeeJ. (28 November 2011). *Bungie Store: Still Open For Business*. Bungie. Archived by Wayback Machine 29 November 2011.
29. ↑ Bungie Store. *See You Starside Collection*. Archived by Wayback Machine 27 November 2011.
30. ↑ DeeJ. (6 July 2012). *Hey everybody, it’s Bungie Day!*. Bungie. Archived by Wayback Machine 13 August 2012.
31. ↑ Bungie Store. *Apparel*. Archived by Wayback Machine August 2012.
32. ↑ Bungie Store. *Destiny Collection*. Archived by Wayback Machine 20 February 2013.
33. ↑ Bungie Store. *Limited Edition Fallen Lithograph*. Archived by Wayback Machine 22 February 2013.
34. ↑ Bungie Store. *E3 Collection*. Archived by Wayback Machine 11 June 2013.
35. ↑ DeeJ. (5 July 2013). *Bungie Store Restocked*. Bungie. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
36. ↑ Bungie Store. *The Buried City Lithograph*. Archived by Wayback Machine 9 July 2013.
37. ↑ Bungie. (29 November 2013). *It's a Bungie Black Friday sale (no pushing or shoving required, but highly encouraged)*. Twitter. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
38. ↑ Bungie Store. *Bungie Store*. Archived by Wayback Machine 29 December 2013.
39. ↑ DeeJ. (18 June 2014). *Bungie Store Rises Again*. Bungie. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
40. ↑ Bungie. (18 June 2014). *New vendor. New gear. New Bungie Store!*. Twitter. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
41. ↑ Bungie Store. *Bungie Rewards*. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
42. ↑ Bungie. *Our Destiny*. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
43. ↑ Bungie Store. *PREORDER: Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Collector's Edition - PS4*. Archived by Wayback Machine 28 June 2019.
44. ↑ Cozmo. (24 June 2021). *This Week at Bungie – 6/24/2021*. Bungie. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
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