Recently game publisher Activision announced that it would pass on “full publishing rights and responsibilities for the Destiny franchise” over to Bungie. After helping Bungie launch Destiny and Destiny 2 over the past few years, the mega-publisher is stepping away. The Destiny community, to say the least, is praising the split due to the fact that many players believe Activision is responsible for some of the game’s controversies revolving around microtransactions and shady business practices. But we are not here to pounce on Activision. I think the split is a positive thing, but I also think it is too late for Destiny 2.
Let’s Recap
Destiny 2 has come a long way. I really enjoyed the Forsaken DLC and really appreciated all the work Bungie put in to make the game better. The introduction of bows was amazing, the story was fine (does anyone remember Ghaul by the way? Totally forgot he existed) and the new settings were beautiful. It was a fun time and I am glad I purchased and played it. But then I did what I always do with Destiny. Got to the power cap, obtained a few exotics and that was it. I did hit the grind again once to get that sweet Future War Cult Warlock armor, but after that, I just lost interest. I then only played to help my friend with his weekly activities. It just wasn’t there for me anymore.
After that, the next DLC to drop was the Black Armory. I was very hesitant to get the annual pass to be able to play the new stuff, so I just waited to see how it initially launched. Not to my surprise, it launched with some backlash. Apparently, you could access the first Forge but could not complete it due to its insane power level requirements. And the only way to level up your power was to not do new activities but to continue on the same old grind again with the same old missions. This was a big turn off for me.
Why Too Late?
Recently players were stuck on the very convoluted Niobe Labs puzzle in the game that granted access to the Bergusia Forge. I remember watching Datto spend hours trying to solve the puzzle with thousands of the community helping during a livestream of the puzzle. Props to Bungie for trying something different. It just sucks that no one could solve it, then Bungie did a reversal and after about twenty-four hours they just unlocked the Forge for everyone, making all the hours Datto and many others spent trying to solve it, seemingly worthless.
It has been instances like this, over Destiny 2’s life that has slowly chipped away at the community. Things like this that have the community divided and at odds with each other. It is not a good place for newcomers to the franchise. And it is simply too late for Bungie to do a complete overhaul of the game, so that’s why the separation will not help out Destiny 2. The game has been out since 2017 and there are already systems in place that changing now would disrupt the whole game. But all is not lost.
The Future
It may be too late in Destiny 2’s life for Bungie to fix all the wrongs but I think the third installment of the franchise is where we may see that separation in full effect. Bungie will have a real opportunity to create a game in their own vision without the constant input from outside sources. It will be a Bungie game, not an Activision game. It will be interesting to see what happens from here and I am very intrigued how Bungie will handle everything going forward.
There is a thought that I keep having though, one that is not so positive. Activision is a money machine. They want products that make as much money as possible for as long as possible. Why would Activision pull out of Destiny? Did they see the money drying up and wanted to back out before it got to bad? Did they see the model for Destiny was not working? Either way, you slice it, it seems this could be a positive thing for Bungie and its community in the long run. It may not benefit Destiny 2 but it may be what Bungie needs to get back to their Bungie ways. I hope they get to build the game they truly want for themselves and the fans.
What's your reaction?
