In Destiny 2 has an announcement from Luke Smith. He says that they had to change something and need to change again. Season 2, as it came in Year 2, could no longer be maintained. However, the new seasons, as they are now, Bungie also wants to change. More time should now be invested in lasting activities, the world should evolve.
That was the transition before 2019: The head of Destiny 2, Luke Smith, explained in a blog post why Destiny 2 could not continue in 2019 as it did the year before, and how Bungie will change the direction of Destiny 2 in Year 4.
In the 2018/2019 season (Year 2), three seasons for Destiny 2 were released in the Annual Pass similar to the previous DLCs with large activities:
- The forges came new
- Gambit Prime appeared as a major activity for Destiny 2
- and opened the Menagerie in the Season of Opulence (Season 7).
This program could only be handled by Bungie with the help of partner studios provided by Activision to deliver content. Now that Bungie is alone, such a program is no longer feasible.
In Year 3, Destiny relied on time-limited content – FOMO
For 2019/2020, Year 3, Bungie had to find a “new way” to move forward.
Luke Smith emphasizes that it is important to protect the creativity and the “work/life” balance of the employees, because without them, there would be no Destiny 2.
Therefore, in Year 3, when Bungie worked alone, they decided to focus on time-limited content. Luke Smith announced this in August 2019.
Destiny 2 should become a game where “things happen.” This should prevent Destiny 2 from seeming static and stagnating. By only leaving the content in the game temporarily, they also wanted to prevent Destiny 2 from “continuously growing”, because that was not the plan.
Bungie wanted a dynamic, ever-evolving world.
However, this also meant that content in Destiny would now be time-limited: Those who do not keep up will miss it. It is referred to in English as “FOMO” (Fear of Missing Out). The pressure is there to tackle every activity immediately, for fear of missing out. Destiny became a game driven by time-limited events.
This works with the seasons: Smith sees three things that work well:
- The story now interconnects
- Right now, Season 9 is seen as successful, it was “the best winter content” they have ever had. Smith praises especially the elements with Saint-14. The team was pleased with the reactions
- The Battle Pass works. It is easy to level up. However, they still need to find better ways to distribute EXP.
This does not work:
- The world is not evolving – this is the big vision in the new era of Destiny 2
- The aspect of “FOMO” (fear of missing out) is too great – players must engage with new content in Destiny 2, otherwise, it is gone. Much of what is new is only relevant for a certain period of time and then disappears again.
PvP and lasting activity are likely the focus of Destiny 2 in 2020
This is what they want to change now: Bungie wants to invest more time in the “core activities” of the game next year; these are the elements that have permanence and will remain in the game longer.
These are things that are played more often and approached together with players:
- The Crucible is one such thing, because there the human component adds a lot of replay value.
- Smith also praises the PvE activity Trials.
If Bungie designs quest lines in the future, like the one with Saint-14, they should be structured so that they remain relevant until the next expansion. Public spaces should play a more important role, the places where multiple players come together.
What Bungie wants to do less of are seemingly quest/campaign content, because they are usually only played once. Also, seasonal activities like the Sundial would currently consume many resources but would quickly become irrelevant.
Apparently, there will be fewer of these seasonal activities in the future.
Destiny 2 in the Whirlwind of Deficiencies
This is what lies behind it: What should be the solution for Destiny 2 is now apparently seen as a problem:
- Previously, the world was too static
- Now the world is too unstable and Guardians miss too much if they do not play for 3 months
Bungie apparently is still searching for the right formula for how to evolve Destiny even 6 years after the release of the first part. This is legitimate; it is a difficult task.
The real problem lies elsewhere: Smith explains in the blog post why Bungie only has limited resources to design content for Destiny 2.
He exclusively considers “live updates”, which are the seasons. He does not mention any other activities that Bungie as a studio engages in: like other games, expansions for Destiny 2 or a Destiny 3.
This makes the discussion always seem difficult because Bungie is actually a 600-man studio and Destiny 2 should live from a “constantly expanding world.”
The expectations of the players are: They have a huge studio, they should solve the barriers and overwhelm us with content, just as they promised.
It was said in July 2017, before the release of Destiny 2: The game would maintain a “robust pipeline of new content.” They wanted to satisfy the “hunger for new game content.”
These would be sentences from Activision, from which Bungie is now far removed.
It is ultimately always about how to optimally utilize the apparently very few forces. This makes Destiny seem like a managed economy. If players want improvements in area A, they must forgo improvements in area B.
Bungie swings between extremes: In recent months, the “short-term content”, like the puzzle of the Labyrinth, has certainly been dominant, which gave Destiny 2 a boost. However, the changes were not really sustainable.
If Destiny 2 now focuses on sustainable improvements and moves away from the “event character” of the game, they may gain advantages here, but new gaps may then arise.
How Year 4 in Destiny 2 will feel will heavily depend on what Bungie is planning to release for Fall 2020:
- Will a 3rd expansion come to Destiny?
- How big will it be? As big as Forsaken, a size smaller, as big as Shadowkeep, or something else?
- What new ideas does Bungie have for Destiny 2?
- Can Bungie achieve a mood uplift?
The seasons in Year 4 seem still far away. First of all, the Trials are coming back into play. It looks like Bungie will hold on to Destiny 2 for at least another year and will not release Destiny 3 until 2020.
