On the evening of June 9th, Bungie presented the future of Destiny 2 in a prepared stream. It was the most important stream since 2017. At the beginning of the stream, there was silence for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. That was the duration of George Floyd’s struggle for life.
This was the expectation: People thought Bungie would start the stream with much spectacle and a trailer. Bungie needed a bang after some difficult months to wake up and motivate the fans again.
But the stream did not begin with the presentation of the new expansion “Beyond Light”, but with a map and silence.
This is why they stayed silent: As stated on the displayed maps, the struggle for life of African American George Floyd lasted 8 minutes and 46 seconds. He was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis on May 25th. Since then, unrest has prevailed in the USA. The “Black Lives Matter” movement fights against racism and discrimination in the USA.
Bungie let the full 8 minutes and 46 seconds pass to emphasize how long Floyd lay on the ground without anyone intervening until he died.
This is how it is viewed: Bungie received a lot of praise for the action. They would use their platform impressively to stand up for the movement, it was said by Twitch streamer Teawrex.
As people in Seattle say, this is not just lip service. Many Bungie employees are seen at protests in the streets of Seattle, even CEO Pete Parsons is among them.
As MeinMMO staff member Irina Moritz experienced, the community in other streams was moved by Bungie’s gesture during the Destiny 2 reveal. For example, streamer GladdX also remained silent for the entire 8 minutes and 46 seconds, and mostly positive comments were made.
On MeinMMO, user Chris Ze said: “Great! Huge respect to Bungie for this action with the nearly 9 minutes! It really makes you realize how damn long Mr. Floyd had to suffer.””
This is how the stream went: It was an unusual stream for Bungie in unusual times. Normally, Bungie announces new expansions in live streams and the announcements follow a fixed pattern:
- the streams start about 15 minutes before time with static images and a soundtrack
- at some point, you hear the moderator DeeJ doing a sound check
- the stream starts in a studio atmosphere
This time the stream was completely pre-recorded – due to Corona. In the main part, you saw the two front figures of Destiny, Mark Noseworthy and Luke Smith, discussing content and directional decisions. In between, there were always trailers and inserts.
In one segment before the stream started, Bungie employees talked about working from home.
As the stream was about to begin, there was silence for 8 minutes and 46 seconds.
This is why the stream was important: Later in the stream, Bungie presented the realignment for the next 3 years. Bungie feels completely committed to the game Destiny 2, will bring 3 expansions by 2022 and go “All In”.
This was certainly the most important stream since the announcement of Destiny 2 in the summer of 2017.
If you want to read in detail what Bungie shared during the “most important announcement” in years, you can follow it in our live ticker for the stream. The full stream is also embedded there – with the silent 8 minutes and 46 seconds.
