A former developer of Destiny 2 talks about the big mistake that fans have not forgiven Bungie even years later.
What was the mistake? Beginning with the expansion “Beyond Light”, Bungie removed game content from Destiny 2 for which fans had paid.
In Destiny circles, this is usually referred to as the “Content Vault”. Players mean that the removed content ended up in a “vault” and was locked away. The removed content includes the entire campaign of “The Red War”, the expansions “Curse of Osiris” and “Warmind”, several raids, and the Forsaken campaign.
Now, Max Nichols, a former Destiny developer, has written about the process of content vaulting and his role from a developer’s perspective in a sort of resume on his website (via maxnicholsdesign).
Who is the developer? Max Nichols is an experienced developer who worked at Bungie for over 9 years. During this time, he was responsible for hiring and training new employees, as well as implementing new missions and modes and updating old content. His area of work included the so-called Content Vault with “Beyond Light”.
What does the developer say about content vaulting? Nichols states that “Beyond Light” came with a major engine upgrade that was incompatible with all (!) existing content of Destiny 2. This meant that they had to recreate all the content that needed to remain in the game.
Nichols writes that he ported some of the first content himself and took notes on how much time he needed and why. Together with production, he then calculated how many person-hours this project would take and how many people Bungie would need to hire. Subsequently, he was tasked with leading the hiring of twenty “Associate Technical Designers”.
What does this mean for Destiny 2? Nichols’ account shows how much work was involved with the engine upgrade. Not only did they have to port old content that they needed to keep over several months, but they also had to hire a total of 21 new employees to manage the associated workload in a timely manner.
Fans are convinced: This has irrevocably harmed the game
This is what the Destiny community says: Even years after the removal of numerous contents, many Destiny players cannot forgive Bungie for this action. On Reddit, many players find the behind-the-scenes insight interesting but still consider it a huge mistake that has long-term damaged the game.
One player writes: “That doesn’t change the fact that the ‘Content Vaulting’ and ‘Sunsetting’ have irrevocably changed the game’s direction and player counts.” Another player adds: “No one believes that they did it without reason. Nonetheless, it was clearly the wrong decision and has irrevocably harmed the integrity of the game.”
The content vaulting is described in the comments regarding the preservation of the story and content of the game as a complete disaster that has caused irreparable damage to the game.
With the website and the detailed resume, Max Nichols shows potential employers his qualifications and experience in the gaming industry. It has recently been revealed that he is one of the 1,000 employees that Epic Games recently laid off: Epic Games lays off over 1,000 employees after recently raising prices for V-Bucks in Fortnite
