A series of unfortunate events featuring Bungie.

Just keep slipping on them bananas

I love Destiny 2.

Have been playing it weekly since it launched in 2017.

But what I have not loved, is the constant business choices that have constantly put the game and jeopardy and it now it looks like we might be seeing the final nail in the coffin.

Bungie started off independent but at the turn of the century was purchased by Microsoft, after a promising showing of their new Halo game.

After many somewhat successful years at Microsoft, Bungie announced they were going independent.

In 2010, Bungie announced a ten year publishing deal with Activision to make Destiny.

Destiny 1 was also somewhat a success however it was plagued with development issues that stifled the games ability to create new content at speed.

After a few expansions, Bungie announced then launched the sequel in 2017. Then in 2019 Bungie terminated their agreement with Activision, it was later found out that the two parties disagreed on how to run the game, with Bungie wanting time to support a growing user base with regular content, whilst Activision expected regular large expansions packs and wanting the studio to be transitioning onto sequels faster.

Effectively Activision wanted Destiny to act like Call of Duty and bring in the same amount of revenue, when that wasn't the case they were happy to split.

Despite no longer having the development woes of the first game, and having the pushy publisher off their back, Destiny 2 still struggled to find its footing.

Bungie needed to ramp up development on their intended plans of regular seasonal content and yearly expansions, despite losing the development manpower Activision had provided them.

They did eventually find their feet (I'm a happy player after all) but it still wasn't an easy road. Development issues still plagued the game with the studio having to delete content because the game was becoming too unruly to manage whilst still needing to release new content, and to twice push back the yearly release by several months, the first time due to covid, the second due to layoffs.

Despite the success of the game and strong fanbase the studio still seemed to struggle to get into a great place. Not to mention the fact that it had turned out the studio had some quite problematic culturural issues that required a major shift in the way the company ran itself.

Then in 2022 Bungie was bought out by Sony. Not quite a full buyout, Bungie retained some independence, but this is where the last nail seems to be getting lined up. Sony wanted Bungie for its experience with live service games, Sony at the time announcing that they were going to go from zero to ten live service games in a matter of years, spoiler alert, they failed in that goal.

It appears, in hindsight, that Bungie stretched themselves too thin with joining Sony.

Bungie assigned staff to help develop and consult on several now cancelled Sony live service games. Bungie then also began exploring other media oppourtunites, with the studio head stepping up into a role to explore those avenues, and the announcement of a new non-Destiny title, Marathon.

In the end it seems all of this was a big mistake, and it looks like Bungie, and potentially Destiny may pay the ultimate price. As mentioned non of Sony's live service games got off the ground, then in late 2023 Bungie, despite one year earlier having all this extra investment to expand, then laid off a considerable amount of their workforce, shelving Marathon, and delaying the release of the final Destiny expansion by several months. It was then found out the acquisition by Sony came with a bunch of financial goals that Bungie was in very real risk of not meeting, to which the consequences for that would be that Sony would assume full control of the company.

As a Destiny player, knowing that the upcoming expansion would be the final expansion in this games current story, I was originally quite hopeful that Destiny would be able to keep going with a new story and many more years of enjoyment.

However, now I'm quite fearful, that this could be the end. Sony has no experience in this format of game, very few do given the games graveyard littered with 'Destiny killers', and should they assume full control of the studio whilst we are undergoing a forced recession in the industry, I worry that destiny's upcoming expansion will be it's swan song.

Investors, more so than ever, are only interested in sure fire returns on investment, and a game with an addled past needing to navigate the hardest thing a live service game can do, a story and gameplay pivot, I can't see the right decisions being made, and once that player base falls, it will be easier to shutter the game than invest in bringing it back.

I like Bungie, but I worry they are the kid we were all rooting for to make it but shot themselves in the foot with the wrong decisions.

Whilst, video games is a tough industry, especially when games need money and investors are mostly always a catch-22, I can't help but feel like Bungie continuously made some bad decisions amongst some real bad luck. It feels like they never thought to take the safe route, instead always pushing for one more thing.

I feel quite strongly, these days more than ever, that if a video game is going to lure me into loving their game, then they actually have some responsibility to do right by their players.

Video games are an art form, an entertainment medium, and something that people use to relax, connect with friends, and become important parts of their lives, and its really starting to feel, across the board that they only feelings these companies care about are the investors.

Whilst I understand that from the late stage capitalist point of view, people like me are going to stop falling in love with games if this keeps happening, and once players have lost the desire to love a game out of fear it will be taken away from them, well the games will stop making the investors their money.