Bungie has postponed the expansion Shadowkeep for Destiny 2 . Our author Schuhmann says: It doesn’t matter what reasons Bungie mentions in the coming days. Everyone will connect this with the competing game Borderlands 3 . Bungie is now avoiding that.
This is the delay: Bungie originally wanted to release Shadowkeep on September 17. Now it will be October 1.
They are postponing Shadowkeep, the Steam release, and the Free2Play version by just 2 weeks.
Bungie turns delay into a positive
Bungie says: They briefly mention that it has become increasingly clear that they need “a little more time in the oven”.
Now, since they are independent from Activision and alone, they are now able to do what is best for the players and simply postpone it.
Bungie emphasizes the delay as “positive”, as something that wouldn’t have been possible before. But now – with the new era of Bungie it is possible, and therefore they are doing it.
It resonates with: In the past, they would have had to yield to Activision and make the “worse decision”.
They emphasize again how much they love the MMO and RPG elements. That’s Bungie.
Borderlands 3 would have released only 4 days before Shadowkeep
What was the actual problem? The previous release month in September has been Destiny’s “traditional release window” since 2014. But in 2019 they have Borderlands 3 as a direct competitor for the first time.
Because Borderlands 3 releases on September 13, 2019, the Friday before Shadowkeep, which comes on Tuesday.
It was clearly a problem for Bungie to have a competitor launching its advertising campaign in the same window right at their doorstep.
Some players have also complained that the release dates are very close together. They called it a luxury problem.
It is common to avoid competitors – But no one admits it
What supports this theory? That Bungie really resolves serious issues requiring a delay in just two weeks seems very unlikely:
- Other games that were really delayed due to problems took at least half a year more
- The original Destiny was postponed twice for a total of one year. Destiny was originally supposed to release in September 2013
- Also Destiny 2 was delayed by one year – after a reboot the release moved from September 2016 to September 2017
Certainly, every game benefits from more time, but few can afford a delay. Therefore, it is likely that Bungie wanted this delay themselves and it is not necessarily a result of real problems.
Problems that are so small that they can be solved in 2 weeks usually do not cause a delay but are fixed with a patch.
Meanwhile, it is well known that studios react to “competitor titles” and adjust their release dates. However, this is not discussed publicly:
- Last year, Battlefield 5 was postponed, evidently to avoid Red Dead Redemption 2.
- Also, Call of Duty. Black Ops 4 reacted to the release of RDR2, as we have heard from insider sources, with a date adjustment. They had to advance the release.
This is what’s behind it: Postponing Destiny 2: Shadowkeep was certainly the right decision. In a duel with Borderlands 3, Destiny 2 with a “rather small expansion” had nothing to gain and would have to share the spotlight for weeks with one of the hottest releases of 2019.
The veterans and regular players will be reached with Shadowkeep anyway – but the new release window increases the chance of attracting new players.
