Apparently, in spring 2016, the fate of Destiny 2 changed drastically. New information sheds light on a dark time of Destiny and the mysterious reboot.
Between December 2015 and April 2016, the development of Destiny seemed to lose its sense. During this time, Bungie sent confusing messages that players are still grappling with today.
At the end of 2015, Destiny was at its peak
The situation: Destiny was at its peak following the acclaimed expansion “The Taken King.” In September and October 2015, there was only one topic in the gaming world: Destiny and how well it had been received.
Fans expected at the PlayStation Experience in December 2015 that Bungie would now present plans for Year 2, announce a season pass, and two DLCs to bridge the gap until Destiny 2’s release in September 2016.
In November 2014, the Activision CEO had already announced that Bungie was working on Destiny 2.
For 5 months, really strange things happened in Destiny
By December 2015, the field was essentially set. Then for 5 months, pretty crazy things happened:
- In December came the statement: There are no paid DLCs for Destiny anymore, only events and content patches – the Live Team would be responsible for that.
- Furthermore, the announcement, Destiny will now be a hobby and more than just a shooter. With the Sparrow Racing, “non-shooter content” was introduced. But: After that, nothing was heard about this direction again, and Destiny 2 lacks these “hobby” elements.
- Still in December, Bungie’s PR chief Eric Osborne reassured the horrified fans that great times with many events were ahead – But: Then came one of the longest content droughts in Destiny and nothing more happened in the winter. Since then, statements from Osborne regarding Destiny have become considerably rarer.
- In January 2016, Destiny 2 was delayed by a year from fall 2016 to fall 2017.
- Later in January, the head behind Destiny changed: Harold Ryan left, Pete Parsons took over the role as CEO of Bungie – there was no further mention of this, Ryan was gone after 15 years at Bungie.
- In March 2016, an elaborate live stream, featured Story Lead CJ Cowan talking with the actresses of Mara Sov and Eris Morn about their characters and their development – But: Eris Morn and Mara Sov have not played a role in Destiny since The Taken King, despite their characters being popular and offering story potential.
- In April 2016, Story Lead CJ Cowan announced his departure from Bungie after 13 years at the company to pursue new challenges – But: A year and a half later, he is still apparently looking for a job.
- Around May 2016, TTK Chief Luke Smith changed his profile on Twitter and stated that he was now Game Director for a “yet-to-be-announced project” at Bungie – later we found out that this was Destiny 2.
Reboot and leadership change at Destiny 2 in spring 2016
The question is: How does all this fit together? The US journalist Jason Schreier reported back in May 2016 that Destiny 2 was rebooted. In a reboot, the development is reset to zero and you start over. You rearrange the parts you already have and build on additional elements.
A reboot seems to have already occurred with Destiny 1: Back then, Bungie reportedly parted ways with author Joe Staten and put together something new from the parts of the story.
Now Schreier elaborated on the Destiny 2 reboot in a podcast. According to Schreier, the responsible parties decided in April 2016 that they were not happy with the direction of Destiny 2, ordered a reset, and promoted Luke Smith to Game Director. The person who was previously the director of Destiny 2 is no longer with Bungie.
Schreier does not reveal who the “former game director” was, but the only one that fits is actually CJ Cowan. And that is the piece of the puzzle that explains much.
First promoted, then fired?
Cowan was Lead Story Designer for Vanilla Destiny, Story Lead for House of Wolves and The Taken King. During the stream back then, it was noted: This CJ Cowan seemed to be the new head of Destiny, and Mara Sov is his “main character” in this Destiny.
This also aligns with Cowan’s LinkedIn profile: According to it, he was indeed promoted to “Creative Lead, Story” in November 2015. And six months later, he was gone … apparently not as voluntarily as it sounded in the press statement at the time.
Cayde-6 instead of Mara Sov
Apparently, CJ Cowan was indeed responsible for Destiny 2. That also explains why “his character” Mara Sov is so prominently featured in the Destiny stream in March and then played no further role.
With the departure of CJ Cowan, his characters probably became less important. The team around Luke Smith seems to prefer Cayde-6 and new characters over Eris Morn, Mara Sov, and the old storylines like “the Darkness.”
Smith wants nothing to do with the Darkness for now.
Destiny 2 was only in development for 16 months – not 3 years
Plan and reality:
- The development of Destiny 2 actually started before November 2014 and the release was planned for September 2016.
- In fact, Destiny 2 was likely rebooted in April 2016 and then released in September 2017: So, there were only 16 months.
This change in direction just 16 months before the release of Destiny 2 could be responsible for many problems and explain the strange time back then.
For Schreier, it is clear that Destiny 2 lacks substance because Bungie simply did not have 5 years of development time as with Destiny 1, but only 16 months.
It’s certainly an interesting question how the departure of the Bungie CEO fits into the proceedings of Destiny and whether it has anything to do with the delay of Destiny 2. Perhaps the “new CEO” decided three months after taking office to go ahead with the reboot and needed new personnel for that.
Reboot at Destiny 2 – like at Destiny 1
It is ironic that the same thing that happened with Destiny 1 is apparently happening with Destiny 2. It seems that the bosses were dissatisfied with the work of the story chief just before the deadline, chased him off, ordered a reboot, and Luke Smith was supposed to save it.
But whether all this played out exactly the same way will likely remain uncertain. Bungie is notoriously tight-lipped. What do you think?
Again and again, the problem of Destiny and Destiny 2 is apparent – the schedule is too tight:
