In an interview, Bungie has now confirmed that they will eventually put the expansion “Forsaken” into the content vault of Destiny and thus remove it from the game. “Forsaken” is generally considered the best expansion that Destiny 2 has ever received.
Who is speaking? Bungie has filled several positions in February 2021. The previous “bosses”, Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy, have been promoted. They are now supposed to take care of other parts of Destiny: Officially, they are said to prepare and oversee the “expansion of the Destiny universe into other media”. Perhaps this involves a movie or a series – no one knows.
The new head of Destiny 2 is officially Justin Truman, the “General Manager.” He has been with Bungie for 11 years, is actually a trained programmer, and over the years has grown more into a management role.
Bungie does not want 8 raids and 5 storylines in Destiny 2
What about Forsaken? In an interview with Eurogamer, Truman states clearly (via Eurogamer):
“Content from Forsaken will eventually go into the vault. I think: Just as we don’t want 8 raids, we also don’t want so many storylines. We don’t want a player to come into Destiny and see 5 storylines competing with each other that they could all play.
In some of the storylines, Uldren is a good guy, and in some, he is the villain, and it is unclear whether you are playing the stories in the wrong order.”
Justin Truman
This is what Bungie says about the vault: The controversial feature, “Destiny Content Vault”, is seen by Truman as something positive. He says:
“As a player, I don’t want to log into Destiny and see 20 planets filling the screen, and 8 raids where I feel the obligation to grind them every week with 3 characters.”
Justin Truman
If Destiny 2 offered so much content to choose from, one could speak of a game with a 500 GB download. Truman sees that size as ideal, which Destiny 2 had at the start of Beyond Light. This size is to be maintained: When something new comes into the game, something old goes out.
Truman emphasizes the positive aspects of the “content vault”: Because from it, “old experiences” are also supposed to come back into the game, even content from Destiny 1.
Truman explains how much he loved battling “Sepiks Prime” in Destiny 2. He looks forward to when the Glassway returns in Season 14. He is certainly not the only one excited about that.
This is being discussed: The discussion about the “content vault” shows a clear gap between how Bungie presents it and how it is received by players. Bungie describes the content vault as necessary and healthy. Destiny cannot grow indefinitely; this large selection would overwhelm players.
A large part of the player base, on the other hand, sees mainly the disadvantages. They say:
- “You are cutting content for which we have paid.”
- Furthermore, the story makes no sense for newcomers at all.
- Moreover, it is totally unusual to cut content – huge MMOs like WoW are much larger than Destiny 2 and there is nothing removed from the game.
- For many players, the idea is wonderful to log into Destiny and have the choice between many planets – a “World of Destiny” screenshot has long been circulating, showing the planets from Destiny 1 included in the choices for Destiny 2.
Destiny 2 enters uncharted territory … reluctantly
This is what it’s about: According to the “master plan” of Activision, Destiny 2 should actually only last two years. But the plan is already very old.
But it is quite possible that in 2018 they still believed the lifespan of Destiny 2 would be about 3 years, like Destiny 1. This means: Destiny 2 actually had to end in September 2020, and players would then have moved on to Destiny 3. After separating from Activision, Bungie decided to extend Destiny 2 and at least plan for 6 years.
The underlying technology and design do not seem to be aimed at a “6 years” game but only for a “3 years” game. Therefore, Bungie must now find ways to remove “content” from the game when new content comes in.
This is generally unusual and against the spirit of an “MMO”: games are supposed to grow continuously; shrinking has never been mentioned.
Thus, Destiny 2 is entering uncharted territory and receiving a lot of criticism for this decision. Bungie has since distanced itself from “sunsetting”, a similar idea, but it seems they want to hold on to the controversial content vault.
For 10 months, Destiny 2 has firmly defended a hated idea—now quietly rowed back
