Bungie’s recent layoffs and delays were no accident, especially when you dive into the details surrounding the whole debacle. Let’s explore 5 ways Bungie is failing the Destiny 2 community.
The last few days have been rough for the Bungie community. These are times of uncertainty, fear, and anger for everyone involved, including the developers themselves, and rightfully so. Once the dust settled, there have been reports showing the developers at Bungie aren’t as at fault as some initially might have believed.
The Layoffs Were Poorly Handled
Paul Tassi, a writer for Forbes and someone with contacts in Bungie, has made several reports detailing the inner workings of the struggling company. Some of these reports convey an air of mismanagement and a lapse in leadership. A lot of the developers and employees at Bungie are royally upset because upper management made certain bets and moves that have not panned out, and they are not the ones being laid off. While these plans-made-reality were not detailed, one could imagine Lightfall as the primary result, which may have paid off initially in sales but became a primary reason for losing player retention.
It’s also upsetting that the studio has lost some of its most seasoned individuals, like Michael Salvatori, one of the biggest icons in Bungie, who worked closely with Martin O’Donnell since the early 2000s composing music for Halo and Destiny. His loss alone was devasting for a community that holds him and his work in such high regard.
Many feel that those in charge who made the bigger decisions should be held more accountable. While some of them have forgone annual bonuses, what date that happened and how much money saved Bungie remains a mystery.
New Features That Fall Flat
Some of Destiny 2’s new features have been well received and still thrive today, playing an integral part of the main experience now. In my mind, Loadouts and the armor mod rework with the Lightfall expansion are good examples of features that stay relevant. Other features haven’t fared nearly as well.
Features like the commendation system that initially was a way to earn and show specialized titles based on how you act and play as a teammate. Unfortunately, most don’t seem to care about commendations these days, with half your teammates leaving before giving commendations because they don’t need to give or receive any more. Sadly, this is all due to the system becoming part of a checklist required to increase your Guardian rank.
Likewise, Deepsight Harmonizers are a rare item that can turn deepsight-capable guns into red-bordered versions to instantly grant one of the three to five patterns needed to craft the weapon. Unfortunately, they can only be earned through the season pass—three for free, with the other three on the paid pass. None of which feels great, and you just know the reason you can’t earn them in-game is because of profits and revenue.
Overly Complicated Monetization
This is one issue that has been bothering both new players and veterans alike. Free-to-play players, by far, have it the worst in this regard, especially if they are looking to catch up on all previous content. They would need to buy not only the Legacy Collection pack (The Witch Queen, Beyond Light, Shadowkeep) but also the Armory Collection (30th Anniversary and Forsaken pack). That is all on top of the Lightfall and The Final Shape future expansions.
This brings the grand total needed for all of Destiny 2’s content to $189.96. Now, that’s not including the current and future annual pass. With these, the price jumps from $99.98 to a whopping $289.96. Unfortunately, Bungie’s upper management claims that many people still buy these expansions, which has encouraged the company to keep said expansions separate and expensive. I would argue that consolidating all of the expansions and content into a single, easy-to-digest $99.99 pack would earn many more new players.
New Players Really Don’t Have it Easy
If buying a wide variety of expansion packs for an excessive amount of money wasn’t bad enough, they have to deal with the New Light questline. While the series of quests isn’t terrible for introducing players to the usual NPCs and locations they will be spending their time in, the primary chase for interesting loot doesn’t cement itself into the gameplay loop quickly enough. This is especially true for solo players, who will likely lose interest in the game long before that chase becomes front and center.
This is a direct result of Destiny 2 doing its best to explain the many obtuse systems to new players and guide their experience. To the point where interesting loot, origin traits, perks, mods, and Exotics don’t become the primary goal to play until long after the player gets bored of trying to understand so many new things.
Gambit is Slowly Fading into Obscurity
Gambit has been around since Forsaken, and it served a unique purpose. Unlike Crucible, which directly tested builds against other players, Gambit tests PvE builds in a coop PvE setting that sometimes overlaps with pure PvP. It was by far one of the most unique modes to grace Destiny 2 and its community and became a fan favorite.
Unfortunately, after the vaulting of some Gambit maps, reworks, and following lack of support, the mode’s popularity dwindled. It also didn’t help that for quite a long time, Gambit matches weren’t rewarding enough loot or anything at all due to bugs.
The state of Destiny 2’s community and the game itself are closely linked to the decisions made by Bungie’s upper management. Now that they have been put into a do-or-die position, we will either see Destiny 2 make a glorious recovery or fall deeper into dire straits.
