It’s been a rough few weeks for the Destiny 2 dev team. Fans have been in a state of near-constant uproar after a series of public blunders and poorly-considered design decisions, beginning with the XP controversy that exploded in late November. Now thousands are asking Bungie to blow up its latest IP and start fresh, à la Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.
The community’s discontentment has been palpable for months, going back to the days immediately following the release of Destiny 2. It only took a few days for fans to finish most of the narrative content available at launch, along with various side activities, and the Leviathan raid didn’t prove nearly popular enough for most Destiny players to run it repeatedly. Fans lashed out, attacking everything from D2’s token system and reputation changes to the perceived roll-back of several key features introduced in Destiny 1 expansions. Then came the aforementioned XP controversy, which created an impression (for some) that Bungie was throttling experience gains to encourage players to spend money in the Eververse store. Community anger reached new heights, forcing Bungie to scrap a planned livestream to construct a response that might settle Destiny fans.
Those efforts provided a handful of small wins. The studio managed to quell some anger with its “State of Destiny 2” address, and a podcast featuring senior members of the dev team. The upcoming Masterworks gear looks intriguing, and there’s genuine hope Bungie can save Destiny 2 in the court of public opinion. Three days after Curse of Osiris hit PC and consoles, clans raced to be the world’s first to finish Leviathan’s new raid lair, Eater of Worlds. And responses to its content were overwhelmingly positive. The studio may have already burned through most of the goodwill from its “State of…” address. But if Bungie promised more raid lair content in a Taken King -esque overhaul, we’re convinced (for now) the Destiny community would give the studio yet another chance.
The problem is Bungie can’t seem to stop shooting itself in the foot.
For all the positive energy created by Eater of Worlds, Curse of Osiris still managed to alienate large swathes of the community by putting some of the game’s toughest content (and a pair of PSN trophies) behind a new paywall. Without the first D2 expansion, players could no longer access the Prestige version of the raid or the weekly Nightfall Strike. Trials of the Nine, a semi-frequent PvP event, and other seasonal events (like The Dawning) would also be inaccessible without Curse of Osiris. And that’s a problem for several reasons, the biggest being that gating Prestige activities and Trials of the Nine makes it impossible to earn several trophies from the base game. The trophy situation can and will be fixed. But it was blunder big enough to lead Sony and Microsoft to provide refunds to some Destiny 2 players. And Bungie's response still garnered some criticism.
The studio has since backtracked on some of those decisions. Bungie’s latest community address outlines yet another set of upcoming changes, including promises to make some of the game’s raid and Nightfall activities available to everyone again. Some of the endgame content will still require Curse of Osiris, and the promised changes weren’t enough to quiet the latest accusations that Destiny 2’s endgame is really more of a “spendgame.” The Destiny subreddit may be one of Earth’s top sources of salt, second only to the oceans, but the anger expressed in recent weeks has still been shocking. The previously mentioned thread comparing Destiny 2 to A Realm Reborn didn’t even devolve into a back and forth between those whose still believe in Bungie’s vision and those who don’t. People just argued about whether or not the studio is even capable of delivering a better Destiny anymore.
It’s probably too soon to know what the future will hold for Bungie’s shared-world shooter. Numerous gift-giving holidays are on the horizon, which means there will be thousands (maybe millions) of new Destiny 2 players by the end of December. Even if all of the people decrying the game divert their attention elsewhere, the Destiny 2 servers will probably remain full for the next few months. And the newcomers will have a much different experience than the people who’ve been playing Destiny since 2014… or even those who started in September. But it’s increasingly difficult to assume this community will rally around a third Destiny game. Or even an overhaul expansion like Taken King or Rise of Iron. And that should be a source of major concern for anyone who wants to see the game live longer than it takes for Anthem or a proper Division sequel to arrive.
Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris is available for PS4, Xbox One and PC.
Be sure to check back with Player.One and follow Scott on Twitter for more Destiny 2 news in 2018 and however long Bungie supports Destiny 2 in the years ahead.
