Luke Smith, the head of Destiny 2, spoke in an interview about the controversial sunsetting feature and admitted to problems with it. However, Bungie wants to stick with this system.
What is the sunsetting about? The sunsetting, which translates to weapon retirement, is a system that essentially introduces a kind of shelf life or expiration date for legendary weapons and armor in Destiny 2 (does not apply to Exotics, which remain permanently relevant).
These items can therefore only be infused up to a certain power level. Beyond that, players will not be able to further upgrade the gear. This means that legendary weapons and armor pieces will eventually become irrelevant for the endgame of Destiny 2, as they will have too low a power level at some point. However, they will still remain in the game.
However, Bungie reserves the right to bring back some “retired” weapons from retirement and make them relevant again – meaning they will become earnable again with a higher level cap, possibly with some changes.
This system has already been widely and controversially discussed since its announcement. While it certainly has its supporters, there is also a lot of criticism – especially after the launch of the new expansion Beyond Light, because players are now feeling how painful the weapon retirement really is.
Luke Smith discusses problems with weapon retirement
The biggest criticism is not even the system or principle itself, as it generally brings a fresh wind into the game and gives new weapons a chance to shine. However, there are simply too few new guns for the taste of many players right now. Thus, the loss of a large number of guns affected by the sunsetting cannot even be compensated for.
In short: Bungie has made too many weapons and gear irrelevant and offered very little new in return. The studio has already taken some corrective action, but that is not the only problem with sunsetting.
Where does the information come from? Recently, Luke Smith, the Franchise Director of Destiny, also talked about problems with weapon retirement in an interview with the US site Polygon. There, he revealed how Bungie currently views sunsetting.
This is what the Destiny head says: As Polygon reports, Bungie has indeed recognized the problems of sunsetting, but they are not done with the system yet and want to keep tweaking it. Smith said: “I am very confident that we will continue to make improvements and changes here.”.
At the same time, the head also made it clear that Bungie will continue to stick to the sunsetting principle for the foreseeable future: “For the legendary level, we are not going to do things first that you can keep forever.” He added: “Because in the end, that leads to you having nothing left to chase.” Bungie will therefore first continue to put certain weapons into retirement every few months.
Smith also goes into more detail about the why and the problems in the interview. Players would find something cool, but often just stash it in the vault out of habit and never really use it. “I mean, how often have you been running around in Destiny 2 and worked hard to get a weapon? Then you finally get it, and it’s like ‘Cool, I got it.’ And then you put it away and never even fired a shot with it.”.
However, it shouldn’t end there. Smith stated: “I want to want something better.” So there should remain the drive to constantly want something better, something more powerful, and to chase after it.
What does sunsetting have in common with buying milk? However, Bungie has also noticed certain problematic behaviors that sunsetting causes among players. For example, the premature abandoning of weapons – months before they actually become irrelevant.
Players already stop using certain weapons a whole season before sunsetting or even completely delete them – following the principle: If you can’t use it in 3 months, why still use it now?
Smith compares this phenomenon to buying milk. When you go to the store next door to buy milk, you always look at the latest expiration date. It doesn’t matter if you drink the whole pack right when you get home – you always prefer a pack with an expiration date of 10 remaining days over one with only 9 remaining days.
According to Smith, sunsetting hits the same note here. You can’t just give players something new to chase after without taking away their current favorite toys. Otherwise, they would just use what they already know. But when you say you’re taking their weapons away in 6 months, it gives players the feeling that the weapon is already “dead” upon its arrival. That’s a problem that they are still considering how to solve.
Bungie is well aware of the problems with weapon retirement and wants to continue to tweak and improve the feature – even though no concrete fixes have been mentioned yet. But the reasons for the existence of this feature are clear to the studio.
What do you think about sunsetting in general? Would you judge the system differently if there were more new, exciting loot? Let us and other MeinMMO readers know in the comments.
By the way, Luke Smith also spoke about this: Does Destiny 2 still revise its old supers after Stasis? This is what Bungie says
