Bungie reaffirms its commitment to Destiny and its “bright future”

Believe it or not, but I’m actually finished with Destiny for the next couple of months. I’ve invested a decent chunk of time into it, I’ve done the raids and I’ve acquired a solid collection of firepower that has left me feeling satisfied and fulfilled. Which is why I’ve pretty much gone cold turkey on the game and won’t be back for quite a while.

Now don’t get me wrong, my love for Destiny is still there, but as a player you have to draw a line when you start realising that you’re simply going through the motions between content drops. That and I’m still bitter at Warlocks having their Void Walker supers nerfed in the Crucible thanks a lot Bungie.

I’ll be back when the game has had some chunky new additions added to it, but for now I’m content to leave the sandbox behind and return once I see what Bungie is capable of without Activision looming over their shoulder.

It’s a brave new world for the developer, as they start self-publishing and wave goodbye to Activision in the process. In the latest Bungie blog, Destiny franchise director Luke Smith penned a letter on the game and its “bright future”. “In the short-term, we’re continuing to build the content we’ve promised for the Annual Pass,” Smith wrote.

We’ve learned a lot from Black Armory that we will apply to future releases, most notably that we’d like the beginning experiences of content drops to be a better point of convergence for the playerbase. In Black Armory, we set the Power requirement for the first forge too high, and that meant it wasn’t a great chance to jump into some new content.

We want to find the line between new content that many players can play, and aspirational content for players to progress toward. We’re exploring improvements to catch-up mechanics for players in upcoming seasons.  Last: Long-term, Bungie is committed to Destiny. We created the universe and we hold its future entirely in our hands.

The vast majority of the team is hard at work envisioning future experiences, enemies, and ways to play the Guardian you’ve been building since 2014. We’re going to keep doing that. We’re thinking about what it means to be truly independent, what it means to self-publish, and crucially, what Destiny‘s future can now look like for our players. 

It’s going to be interesting to see just how Destiny shapes up without the influence of Activision. My guess would be slower content rollouts, hopefully far fewer microtransactions and even more experimental gameplay modes that target a certain niche of the Destiny fanbase. Bungie’s going to have their work cut out for them however, as gaining players for their game isn’t difficult.

It’s keeping them invested and logged in, that’s the real challenge.

Last Updated: January 21, 2019