The SF shooter Destiny 2 (PC, PS4, Xbox One) is still a few months away, but the chief strategist already has plans for the next installment, Destiny 3. But why is there actually Destiny 2? Why isn’t the first part continued?
Luke Smith was the Creative Director of “The Taken King” and is now the Game Director of “Destiny 2.” He worked his way up at Bungie from 2007, utilizing his years of experience as a passionate fan of World of Warcraft.
In an interview with the men’s magazine GQ, Smith spills the beans. An intriguing question: “Why is there actually Destiny 2?” Why didn’t Bungie just continue the existing Destiny with expansions, just like Blizzard has been doing with WoW for years.
Why Destiny 2?
The question of “Why a Destiny 2” has different answers according to Smith.
The boring and unsexy answer is “We have a contract” – that’s the business side of it.
The creative answer to the question “Why a Destiny 2?” gave Smith more headaches.
They were at a crossroads. They could have continued Destiny with expansions like “The Taken King” indefinitely. Smith discussed this extensively with the director of Destiny 1, Jason Jones. There were tables full of “Plus” and “Minus” points and quite a few sleepless nights.
A number on the box means: opportunity for a fresh start
Ultimately, one idea was crucial: “If we put a number on the box, that means: Now is a good time to start fresh with Destiny.”
If they had continued with expansions, the audience would have gotten smaller and smaller.
The great thing about Destiny is creating a world that brings players together. But that’s difficult when some players already have hundreds of hours of head start.
Then you tell a friend: “Come, play with me.”
And he thinks: “Come on, get lost. You have thousands of hours of head start, I could never play with you!”
Destiny 3: More social
Smith was also asked about the time after Destiny 2. He and the team worked on making statements like “Other players matter too” or “The social action shooter.” If a Destiny 3 were to be released, that would be the direction they want to go.
In another statement to the site Kotaku, Smith says that in the long run, he and the team can imagine fulfilling “support classes” or similar role fantasies – for instance in the raids.
Destiny 2 – “Endless MMORPGs” don’t do much different
Mein MMO says: Why Destiny 2? Because the gaming market was different 5 or 6 years ago.
And back then, the contract between Activision and Bungie was forged, not today. At that time, one could hardly imagine Destiny on PS4 and Xbox One and effectively wanted the next Call of Duty: a full-price title released biannually for the console market with expansions and DLCs. Back then, no one wanted a game that lasts forever – because how could you make money with that?
If they were to draft the contract today, there might only be one Destiny that would have been continued annually following the WoW model. But that’s speculation.
Smith is indeed right about this. What he describes is truly a problem facing “endless titles”: The audience tends to get smaller with every expansion.
MMORPGs struggle to attract new players after 5 or 10 years because they think “The veterans have such a lead – I won’t start that.” So, the “endless titles” like WoW, ESO, or Final Fantasy XIV deal with hard resets, level boosts, “everyone is equally strong” and new player campaigns.
What many fans complain about in Destiny is also an issue in endless MMORPGs: Old content from years ago becomes largely irrelevant with each new expansion. A game like WoW has 13 years of content, but everything older than 2016 is no longer useful to players and is therefore largely ignored.
It leaves the question of price: Maybe one couldn’t charge as much for an expansion as for a “full sequel.” There are about 20€ missing in that case. But publishers have long invented microtransactions. The main reason is certainly the opportunity to attract new players, especially when moving to PC as a new platform.
What do you think? Would it have made a difference for you if there hadn’t been a “2” on the box?
More information about Destiny 2 can be found here:
Destiny 2 – Info about the raid: New penalty for dying, Guided Games only “Normal”
