For Destiny 2 2019 was a strange third year, a transitional year. The online shooter seemed to be developed at only half strength. How did 2019 go for Bungie and where is the journey heading in 2020? Can players even expect an announcement for Destiny 3?
This was the crucial change in 2019: The last year began with a bang for Destiny fans: In January 2019, Bungie and Activision announced that they were parting ways. From now on, Bungie would continue to develop the Destiny brand and the game Destiny 2 on its own:
- Bungie now had full control over the Destiny brand
- But also lost the support of Activision in publishing and the two “support studios” responsible for the PC port and parts of the critically acclaimed Forsaken campaign
In June 2019, Bungie declared “the new era of Destiny”
Players really felt the impact of this decision only five months later. When Destiny 2 Shadowkeep was presented in June 2019, the two leaders of Destiny, Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy announced that a new era for Destiny 2 is starting:
- Destiny 2 was now regarded as an “MMO” and would be treated as such – mechanics like “Armor 2.0” or artifacts were supposed to lead to more gameplay depth
- The base game Destiny 2 became Free2Play – in the future players should be able to choose which content to buy and which not
- Destiny 2 also came to Google Stadia and on PC to Steam
In the run-up to this new era, it was noticeable that some long-time developers left the studio. People who had been responsible for the balance of Destiny 2 for years were leaving the studio.
Some of them have now landed at “Probably Monsters”, a company founded by Harold Ryan, the former head of Bungie. He apparently recruited several veterans like Weisnewski and Hamrick from Destiny 2.
Seasons instead of DLCs shape the face of Destiny
How has this affected the game? In the last 6 months, the effects of this supposedly groundbreaking decision have been little felt. An older decision from year 2 still dominates the game experience: Bungie has shifted from two paid €15 expansions per year to 3 seasons at €10 each:
- The expansions no longer come on one day and unlock all new content at once
- But the content comes gradually over months. Events and smaller actions are more important than before. Content is “time-locked” and will be unlocked at a specific time
The shift in philosophy towards an “MMO” has led to a significant increase in the “grind component” in Destiny 2. Many of the more important tasks require players to spend quite some time.
This is the criticism of the new era of Destiny 2: The criticism is consistent that players want more “real new content”. Much of what comes new to Destiny 2 ultimately consists of recycled parts and grind-heavy gameplay mechanics:
- The content is perceived as “stretched”
- It is criticized that seasonal activities disappear or become irrelevant
- The same patterns of group activities repeat from season to season.
- Moreover, the stronger focus on the Eververse is criticized – here there are regularly new items that players also wish for in other parts of the game
- The PvP has improved throughout 2019, but still shows weaknesses – the Trials are still missing
There were indeed highlights in 2019: The expansion “Shadowkeep” was seen by fans as “okay to good” without reaching the scale and significance of the 2018 expansion “Forsaken”: The majority of mein MMO readers rated Shadowkeep positively in the range of 8 out of 10 points.
The new Season 9 featuring the lost Guardian, Saint-14, is also well received.
Where is Destiny 2 currently at? 2019 was a transitional year, behind the scenes of Destiny 2 certainly more happened than in front of the scenes:
- So Bungie now has to build a new publishing structure, as Activision is no longer involved. A new community manager for Germany has been found
- In addition, Bungie formed new alliances with Steam and Google – where the deal with Google Stadia probably cost a lot of time, but does not seem to pay off in the first step
- It can be assumed that much of Bungie’s actual development work this year was not visible, but at best flowed into parts of Destiny that will only be seen in 2020 with a supposed Destiny 3 – some fans fear that the work may have gone into “non-Destiny” titles
Destiny is trying to appeal to new players but is aging
This is why the situation is difficult: Destiny, as a franchise, is now 5 years old. This brings a certain fatigue: It becomes less attractive for new players to enter a developed universe.
The interim year 2019 has done little to enhance the franchise’s reputation or make Destiny more attractive to new players.
At the moment, Bungie is indeed trying to reach new players through New Light or Stadia – but generates less headlines and attention from new content than before.
Destiny 2 was still well-presented in the media in 2019, but there is much more competition than before: Titles like Fortnite, Apex Legends, CoD Modern Warfare, or Borderlands 3 were all more present in 2019 than Destiny 2.
While Destiny previously dominated media coverage in some months, this is no longer the case: Destiny 2 is a game among many titles competing for gamers’ attention.
Destiny is becoming “more beginner-friendly”, but at the same time is becoming less attractive for beginners as it ages.
In 2019, Bungie apparently had to invest a lot of energy due to the departure of Activision to maintain the current status and set itself up better for the future. As a result, day-to-day business has suffered: Little remains of the momentum from the announcement of the new era. The last stream about Season 9 seemed like it did during Activision’s times.
Destiny 2 is now better able to keep existing players engaged with little effort compared to before, but this limits its impact externally.
It needs gameplay highlights and real new content to keep the fire burning.
Under the current circumstances, Bungie did a good job in 2019 of further developing the Destiny brand – however, it was also a wasted year in terms of advancing the game to the next level.
The decision to adopt a season pass model feels outdated in 2019 – hardly any game does that anymore.
The existing direction has been refined: this helps only to retain active players and does nothing to attract new players or bring back old ones. This works better with highlight content, like a new game or big expansions – with detail improvements and drip-feed content throughout the seasons, this will not work.
What’s up with Destiny 3?
At the moment Bungie apparently cannot or does not want to present how it will continue in 2020:
- whether to advance Destiny 2 with a major new expansion and thus go to the PS5 and Project Scarlett at the end of 2020
- whether Bungie is developing a new incarnation for the new consoles with Destiny 3 and is planning another restart
- or whether Bungie is turning to new games and wants to become a “multi-game” studio, which several signs indicate long-term
The problem is: Once Bungie announces a Destiny 3, some players will not want to invest money in Destiny 2 anymore, among other things due to the catastrophic decision that players could not carry any purchases from Destiny 1 over to Destiny 2.
This strange situation seems to prevent Bungie from saying exactly when the next major “event” will come for at least half a year.
This uncertainty makes Destiny 2 seem like a game being developed at a reduced pace and with half strength before 2020 – just like in 2019. It is progressing, but not with the strength and energy that fans of such a large studio expect.
By feeding players piecemeal with a season, players are kept engaged, but they do not get truly satisfied.
This is how it continues in 2020: Until mid-2020, we will hardly experience surprises from Destiny 2. The current Season 9 goes into February.
Season 10 will then probably last until June and bring a stronger PvP focus –perhaps even the Trials will return.
In May or June 2020, we will probably find out what the next real steps for Destiny 2 in the then 6th year of the franchise will be. Then it will become clear whether Bungie manages to regain momentum after a few years of slow development.
