The big hope of Destiny 2 has actually been Luke Smith for the past ten years. He has been responsible for the best moments in the loot shooter since 2014: for the first raid, “The Glass Chamber,” and for the best DLC of Destiny, “The Taken King.” In 2019, he was the face of the supposed new beginning. He has been missing for five years. Today, we ask: What is Luke Smith up to?
Who is Luke Smith?
- Luke Smith is a former journalist and WoW junkie who came to Bungie as a small PR helper and eventually rose to the status of top guru over the course of Destiny. From 2016, he was the Game Director of Destiny 2; he is now the head of the “Destiny” brand.
- In 2012, Luke Smith pieced together the story from the remnants of Destiny 1, which we later saw upon its release in 2014. He used his MMORPG experience as a WoW player to create the raid “The Glass Chamber” and the DLC “The Taken King.” Both are highlights of Destiny.
- In the first years, he kept rising until he seemed to burn out. He was also responsible for the low point of the franchise with the release of vanilla Destiny 2 in 2017.
The “Throw Money at the Monitor” Guy
What were his low points? The “public low point” of Luke Smith, where many got to know him, was an interview with Eurogamer in June 2015. At that time, Smith was on a press tour and presented his DLC “The Taken King.”
The British confronted the American with significantly more uncomfortable questions than Smith was used to and asked him directly how he could justify that people should spend so much money on a DLC that is as expensive as the base game.
As a regular player, one wouldn’t want to spend so much money on a few cosmetic items just for emotes that came with the expensive collector’s edition.
Smith said somewhat arrogantly: If he were to turn on Destiny right now and show the journalist the emotes, the journalist would “throw money at the monitor screen.”
This became a symbol of Bungie’s greed.
Another low point was reached in 2017: Because Smith had to save Destiny 2 after Destiny 1, after the actual development head had dropped out. But this emergency rescue did not succeed this time.
He then had to endure weeks of criticism on the press tour for the miserable endgame and the many problems of Destiny 2. Two years later, Smith admitted that they “slipped up twice” with Destiny.
How was Smith perceived? Luke Smith has always had a tough stand in the Destiny community:
- Among professionals, colleagues, and his superiors, Smith was highly regarded and identified as the “head” behind the gameplay mechanics that formed the appeal of the loot shooter.
- At the same time, he was also the scapegoat for the community, responsible for microtransactions and the major mistakes of Destiny 2. Like DeeJ before him, he was accused of sugarcoating a “bad product” because he was the face and voice of the game during the hype phases of Destiny 2.
Luke Smith Enters a New Era and Steps Back
What was Smith’s last major appearance? Luke Smith had his last major appearance in the livestream in 2019 when Bungie separated from Activision, where he announced that Destiny 2 could finally become an MMO.
In practice, this turned out to be code for “We now need to stretch content and rely on grind mechanics, because we no longer have as many resources as we did with Forsaken.“
After this appearance, he conveyed that he wanted to mostly withdraw from daily business and let young talents rise.
Luke Smith Presents Successors … Twice
How did the succession go? After the major new beginning, it seems Luke Smith no longer has much to do with Destiny. He has now introduced his successor twice.
First with great fanfare, Joe Blackburn, whom he described as the “new leader,” but who already made his exit in January 2024.
For the new-new successor Joe Tyson, there was only a Twitter thread on January 31, 2024, in which Smith praised him.
Luke Smith is the Head of the Destiny Universe, Which is Currently Crumbling
And what is Luke Smith doing now at Bungie? According to Linkedin, Luke Smith has continued to be the “Game Director” of Destiny 2 since 2016.
At a Gamescom event in 2018, it was stated in an interview with MeinMMO that he should look after “Destiny” overall – not just the game, but also Destiny as a media brand. It sounded as if he was working on TV series, films, and comics. However, we haven’t heard anything from the front in years, and Destiny has weakened as a brand – additionally, the new owner of Bungie, Sony, has a huge apparatus and perhaps its own very different plans. Bungie fired a “TV expert” in April 2023.
Officially, Luke Smith is currently, according to his Twitter biography, the “Executive Creative Director” for Destiny.
However, he seems to have completely withdrawn from the daily business of Destiny:
- Perhaps he is really working on “secret projects” related to Destiny
- However, he may have also been significantly involved in the development of new games like Marathon for years.
Clearly, he has probably not had much to do with the game Destiny operationally since 2017/2018. His desired successor Blackburn has already left the company.
A Destiny 3, which many fans wish for and with which Luke Smith is often associated, will definitely not happen.
The Duo from “The Taken King” is Working on a Future That Nobody Knows
His long-time partner Mark Noseworthy is now Vice President and continues to work with Smith, but is equally silent.
In the last sign of life from the two, they stated that they were thinking about how Destiny can proceed beyond Destiny 2. They are apparently working on a vague, not further specified future of the shooter franchise that both have been accompanying for so long.
Well, it would be about time for this future to begin or at least for its outlines to become clear:
