Destiny 2: He is back – Throw money against the monitor already

In Destiny 2 the position of Game Director is now clarified. It is the former journalist Luke Smith, who was responsible for the most beautiful and worst moments in Destiny 1.

It has actually been pretty much clear for a while, but now it is official: Luke Smith is the Game Director behind Destiny 2. For a long time, Smith’s Twitter profile stated that he was “Game Director for an unannounced Bungie game.”

For a while, people thought that could be thefuture Destiny 1 expansion “Rise of Iron”. Some wild speculation could even have suggested that the unannounced projectcould be “another game that Bungie is secretly working on.”

But now it’s clear: Luke Smith is the man behind Destiny 2.

Destiny 2: From Journalist to Game Director – Who is Luke Smith?

Luke Smith has worked as a journalist for several years. He wrote for the well-known US site Kotaku when it was still in its infancy.

In a podcast about his time back then, he mentioned that his day was divided into 3 phases: sleeping, playing World of Warcraft and writing for Kotaku. The transitions were apparently quite fluid. Woke up in the morning, wrote for a few hours, slept more, checked in the afternoon if the articles were okay, then played WoW deep into the night and went to bed.

Smith probably didn’t have a regular life rhythm back then.

After a short time at Kotaku, Smith worked at “1Up.com” and extensively covered Bungie’s Halo series there. During that time, Smith made a name for himself. Eventually, it wasn’t going so well at 1Up.com. Smith finally transitioned to the development studio where he had written so much.

Since April 2007, Smith had been at Bungie, doing practically everything related to writing. At first, he worked as a sort of internal editor and community manager, writing contributions for the fans, and then he transitioned into game development.

What did Luke Smith do in Destiny 1?

When Destiny 1 was approaching, Smith was already in a special position, which he probably owed to his wild WoW years.

Luke Smith was the head of raid development for “The Vault of Glass.” He worked with a team in secret on this raid, of which no one knew whether it would be a success. The background for the “Vault of Glass” also comes from Smith. After the raid content of Destiny 1 performed so well, Smith was promoted.

Thus, he became the lead creative for “The Taken King,” the Game Director, and primarily responsible for the design of the expansion.

It is hard to get a glimpse behind the scenes at Bungie, but Smith has likely had a steep career since the release of Destiny and is now one of the key minds behind the franchise.

Smith is responsible for the two “highlights” of Destiny 1: the “best raid” and the “best expansion” – at least according to general perception.

“Throw Money at the Monitor” – “I Sounded Like an Ass”

However, a low point of Destiny is also on his account.

When Smith introduced the expansion “The Taken King” in an interview with Eurogamer, he was asked multiple times why the expansion was so expensive, especially in British pounds. Smith said that he couldn’t show much yet. But if he could present a video of the new emotes now, then the interviewer would throw money at the monitor.

This triggered a shitstorm before the release of “The Taken King” in the fall of 2015: Fans were outraged by this statement.

The statement stuck with Smith for a long time. Later, Smith himself said that he really sounded like an ass. He has a strange sense of humor and a peculiar way. People around him have gotten used to it. But in that interview, the humor didn’t come across. He learned his lesson. Since then, Smith has wisely stayed out of “business questions”.

However, after “The Taken King” became such a success and the content expansions that came afterward, which were released without Smith, were rather disappointing, many are now longing for Smith’s return to the big stage.

We will see if Luke Smith can add another highlight to his career with Destiny 2. While he has hardly been seen since late 2015, we may soon see and hear the charismatic author Luke Smith more frequently in his new role as Game Director for Destiny 2.

It can be assumed that Smith – just like with “The Taken King” – will be the face and voice of Bungie’s new game Destiny 2 in the coming months.

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Perhaps as early as May – a first livestream is planned to showcase gameplay for Destiny 2.

Destiny 2: The roadmap until release – with gameplay reveal