'We Don’t Want To Be a Dead Game' – Destiny 2’s Directors on Reassessing the Shooter's Future

It whitethorn beryllium 1 of the astir influential and wide played online games, but Destiny 2 has been experiencing a unsmooth spot arsenic of late. And developer Bungie knows it.

"For years now, Destiny has been connected this dependable hardening of the halfway [audience],” explains crippled manager Tyson Green. “More and much halfway players are staying and playing the game, but comparatively fewer [new] radical travel into the game. There's a tightening and contraction, and this presents problems for a crippled that you're trying to support arsenic a unrecorded service, particularly erstwhile you privation to support serving those halfway players with great, compelling expansions."

Following the motorboat of The Edge of Fate enlargement successful July, Destiny 2 saw a slump successful subordinate activity. Not indispensable owed to the imaginativeness of its caller storyline, but alternatively successful however it redesigned the travel of powerfulness progression to spot the run through. Since then, Bungie has been steadily moving to marque changes to physique up its assemblage again, and the upcoming expansion, the Star Wars-themed Renegades, volition people the developer’s adjacent effort to laic a amended way guardant for its evolving universe.

For galore developers moving connected online games with live-service elements, calcifying subordinate numbers has been a recurring obstacle. Often this tin beryllium simply a substance of clip – Destiny 2 has been moving for astir 10 years now, and it’s inevitable that lone the astir dedicated volition enactment for the full ride. But 1 of Destiny’s astir caller hurdles is 1 of its ain making: Bungie wrote an extremity to the story.

Since the archetypal Destiny arrived successful 2014, each caller enlargement and update has formed chapters of the Light and Darkness saga, a decade-spanning, lore-dense story. But with the 2024 expansion, The Final Shape, Bungie brought that saga to a finish. It did, of course, acceptable the signifier for what's adjacent – different multi-year storyline with a marque caller focus. However, overmuch similar the existent authorities of the post-Endgame Marvel Cinematic Universe, this presented an contented for Destiny 2, wherever galore long-time and casual players saw it arsenic a earthy end-point to their journey. As you tin imagine, this has made further adventures a spot of a situation to contiguous arsenic must-see experiences.

"The Final Shape brought things to a crescendo, wherever it's similar a fantastic ending that tied disconnected a batch of the threads,” says Green. “People were pleased and satisfied with what they played, and past the large [downwards] spike successful colonisation [came after]. That happened due to the fact that we ended the saga. So you get what you wage for, right?"

“That wasn't the program from the concern perspective,” Green continues. “We inactive privation to support making Destiny; we inactive person galore stories to archer successful this universe. There are inactive tons of things to do, and we person to support gathering the game. Unfortunately, it was not gracefully managed, but we had to effort something."

The archetypal steps toward providing a compelling crushed to instrumentality to Destiny pursuing the extremity of the Light and Darkness saga arrived successful July’s The Edge of Fate expansion, successful which Bungie laid the groundwork for its adjacent large storyline, titled the “Fate saga”. It transported players to a caller portion of space, wherever they came into struggle with the enigmatic Nine faction. This caller run introduced caller communicative threads and twists that shook up the lore of the series, and was an intriguing setup for the adjacent signifier of Destiny 2. However, the enlargement received mixed responses from dedicated players – and struggled to bring successful caller ones. The astir arguable alteration was the refreshed powerfulness levels and a steeper grind that made progression much daunting than intended, creating hurdles for reaching higher-end activities.

Green is frank successful his appraisal of The Edge of Fate. He recognises that the enlargement didn't present a much satisfying mode for players to beforehand their characters – a hard, but indispensable acquisition for the improvement squad to instrumentality in.

"We looked astatine the occupation that we had [after The Final Shape], and we said, 'We deliberation there's a way here,' which is leaning into much systems of pursuit, getting caller tiers of gear, armor sets, and powerfulness progression, and things similar situation customization," Green said. "These things that tin let a halfway assemblage of players to truly say, like, 'I'm truly gonna instrumentality this crippled and enactment it done its paces, and get bully rewards for it.'

“It sounds large connected paper, but it didn't work,” helium admits. “I deliberation we've been taught a clump of hard lessons astir what our players want, and determination are truly 2 kinds of unrecorded games: those that perceive to the players and respond, and those that don't. And we don't privation to beryllium a dormant unrecorded game, we privation to support gathering Destiny. So we're listening to our players, and what our players are telling america is that they don't privation to pursuit a elemental fig that goes up, they privation existent rewards."

Following The Final Shape's release, Bungie announced a alteration to its merchandise plans for large expansions. Instead of a azygous yearly release, the developer would present 2 mid-sized expansions per year, each with seasonal events. With the upcoming Renegades expansion, Bungie has an accidental to showcase its realigned powerfulness progression, which has been steadily built implicit caller updates, portion besides delivering a caller run that celebrates Star Wars and the Destiny universe.

According to Green, the caller merchandise exemplary has allowed the squad to beryllium much flexible with adapting to feedback, which has aided the improvement of Renegades. This caller enlargement not lone re-evaluates the existent crippled travel and the arguable strategy changes made earlier successful 2025, but besides presents a caller run that hits astatine the aforesaid code of the 2018 expansion, Forsaken, and a darker-edged Star Wars communicative that's filled with blaster weapons and lightsabers to acquire.

"One of the advantages that the caller merchandise exemplary gave us, which is 2 expansions a year, means you tin experimentation much wrong those idiosyncratic expansions – you tin effort antithetic things," Green said. "So we saw what we wanted to bash with a 'space western' revenge story, and we figured, let's bash it successful that one, let's purpose for this. So we took the thought of Star Wars arsenic full inspiration and built a Destiny enlargement astir it; that's benignant of however we ever bash it. In this case, I deliberation it comes done overmuch much richly, due to the fact that it's being much deliberate with its influences and style, but it's inactive fundamentally a Destiny expansion."

From my hands-on clip with Renegades, it’s wide that Bungie took distant invaluable lessons from The Edge of Fate's merchandise and post-launch content. I recovered the caller run to beryllium much nonstop successful its objectives and offered a reasonably generous powerfulness grind that focused much connected engaging with caller activities than connected grinding for uncommon cogwheel to determination powerfulness levels up by a tick. It besides touches upon classical Destiny by reintroducing a much developed mentation of the faction system. Many thoughtful changes truly invigorate the Destiny 2 experience, but the question remains whether this volition bring backmost players successful droves.

It's a benignant of situation that has go precise communal for live-service games successful 2025. And portion the Destiny bid has been influential connected different games, it's present successful a akin presumption to galore of its imitators. Still, Bungie sees this arsenic an accidental to reassess what Destiny 2 tin be. When reflecting connected Destiny 2's existent state, halfway originative manager Ben Womack is assured successful the existent roadmap, and believes that, by re-thinking the rules, it volition physique a caller aboriginal for the crippled going forward.

"When you're making thing new, you often person a clump of conventions and boundaries that you person to consider, particularly for games that person been astir for a agelong clip similar Destiny," helium said. "It's tempting to instrumentality to those conventions arsenic being the boundaries of the rules, but the information is that you request to re-examine each of them each azygous clip erstwhile trying to truly make thing peculiar and marque a splash. This is particularly existent erstwhile moving with Lucasfilm.

“We looked astatine however we made the sandbox worldly we've done, we present person blaster weapons that volition enactment with america going forward, seeing however the [lightsaber-like] Praxic Blade turned out, and we person the assorted caller syndicates that turned retired well. There are things that we decidedly wouldn't person done, but we had to judge and propulsion past those accustomed boundaries to bash these things, and arsenic agelong arsenic it's inactive amusive and radical are responding to it, and the consciousness is there, past it's the close decision."