For a long time, Destiny was alone in its market segment “Online Loot Shooter” or “MMO Shooter.” In 2019, Destiny 2 had Anthem and The Division 2 as two competitors that approached the genre differently. But somehow, something is off, says our author Schuhmann in his conclusion in May 2019 about the genre of loot shooters.
Was Destiny the only option for 5 years? For years, players felt that there were hardly any alternatives to Destiny and played Bungie’s shooter even when there were actually no more contents for thousands of hours. They often complained that there was nothing left to do and that Bungie was just recycling.
To be fair, Destiny wasn’t truly alone from 2014 to 2019. In 2016, there was a period when many Guardians ran around as agents in New York, and in between, some Guardians wandered on other paths, becoming a Tenno in Warframe or a monster hunter in Monster Hunter World. There, they satisfied their hunger for more loot and bigger enemies that Destiny had awakened in them.
But The Division was just an interlude for many – other games differed too much in gameplay from Destiny to permanently satisfy the hunger.
This is what we expected in 2019: Before 2019, it was thought that it would finally be time. The “competitors of Destiny” would finally be at the starting line.
For the release window in Spring 2019, two AAA shooters were announced by renowned studios: Anthem by BioWare and The Division 2 by Massive.
Both studios had previously gathered experience with online games:
- BioWare had already developed the MMORPG Star Wars The Old Republic – although a different team was in charge
- Massive had practically already made the same game with The Division 1 and managed it for nearly two years
Many hoped that the studios would learn from the mistakes of the past years, from their own and Bungie’s mistakes, and understand what fans wanted.
This is what the players wanted: Solid games, a strong flow of content, more and more loot, and things to explore in the games, tear apart with space magic or pierce with bullets.
Fans accepted that one game would hardly be enough to satisfy the eternal loot hunger of the masses.
But three games together should be able to manage that, right?
Like a Buffet
This was the “best case” for fans of good loot: Ideally, the games The Division 2, Anthem, and Destiny 2 would fertilize each other. One game would always ramp up and bring new content, while the others would retreat to work on new content.
It would be like a buffet of loot shooters, where you can choose which dish to put on your plate.
You could “game hop” to simply outlast the content breaks in every game:
- In Destiny 2, a new season starts every 3 months, so one could peacefully play through the new content, then switch to PvP and enjoy the first-person shooter. Ideal: Many love the gunplay in Destiny, but criticize the chronic content shortage
- Anthem aimed for a strong story with regular content updates and completely without PvP. The RPG shooter would give story fans a kick while they fly through the world and explore the mysterious alien landscape
- The Division 2 would offer a different gaming experience with strong build crafting and as a cover shooter – a game for tinkers and loot fanatics
It seemed like the timing would fit well: Anthem was released in February, The Division 2 in mid-March. At the beginning of March and in June, Destiny 2 would showcase two seasons with its mini-updates.
And then in May, it would continue with the big Cataclysm update for Anthem, and then The Division 2 would be up again, Destiny 2 would certainly do something big in September, and so on.
If each game had about a 3-month cycle, as planned and promised, the future actually looked bright. But at least each of the three games had already presented a roadmap with so many new contents.
Buffet is Quite Empty
This is how it really is now: In fact, it looks much bleaker in May 2019 than thought. There is a buffet, but most dishes are either cold or not there yet:
- With Anthem, the content plan has completely gone awry. The freelancers actually have hardly any reason to log in for 2 months – BioWare is still working on fixing the issues that occurred at launch
- The Division 2 launched excellently but then stumbled, took a 6 weeks content break and then brought the raid, which offered content for only a few players – many had expected it differently
- And in Destiny 2, Bungie is coming out of the “Drifter” season, which hardly made few players really happy. The next season is starting soon, but we know little about it. We will probably learn how it continues at the E3 2019
The “content rush” that was promised from the 3 titles held some gaps, for instance, from February to April: with one month of Anthem, a few days of Destiny 2, and about 6-8 weeks of The Division 2 – at the moment, however, many feel that it’s once again a bit deflated.
The exact composition of the loot shooter diet can vary from player to player – depending on preferences.
This is the hope: All three games still have content planned in the pipeline. Most of us probably already paid for that for one, two, or even all three games in the form of season passes.
We can be curious about what the next content offerings will be like.
At the moment, one must note that 2019 started strong for fans of loot shooters: Anthem and The Division had solid to very good leveling phases. But after a strong start, 2019 has declined.
For many, Borderlands 3, expected in September, is a beacon of hope.
Let’s see how things will proceed. At the moment, it seems that studios still haven’t found a formula for keeping players consistently in a game, not even when three games are available.
