No Expansions After The Final Shape
Destiny 2 has experienced its fair share of challenges, with a turbulent development history leading to expansions that have either underperformed or exceeded expectations. Bungie is currently facing a significant wave of employee layoffs, coupled with controversies surrounding CEO Pete Parsons’ extravagant spending during the company’s tumultuous period. Let’s take a deeper look at Bungie and Destiny 2 as a whole to analyze their current situation.
As announced by Bungie, Destiny 2 will no longer receive major expansions like Forsaken and The Final Shape. Instead, the game will now only receive two content packs and two “Episodes” per year as Bungie shifts its focus to projects such as their version of the extraction shooter, Marathon. Many players have raised concerns about the lack of innovation with the game’s seasonal model and how seasonal modes will shape the game’s future.
Destiny’s mainstream success has largely been attributed to its vast content offerings and sandbox gameplay. Expansions like Forsaken revitalized the game with a wealth of activities in the Dreaming City, the challenging Last Wish raid, and a poignant storyline surrounding Cayde-6’s demise and the pursuit of Uldren Sov.
More recently, The Final Shape has garnered positive feedback from the Destiny community, mirroring the success of Forsaken with the introduction of the Prismatic subclass. While the expansion provided a fitting conclusion to the game’s main storyline, fans are now apprehensive about the future Episodes that will follow.
Bungie on Life Support
In addition to the reduction in expansion releases, Bungie has also scrapped several projects that were in mid-development. Promising titles like Gummy Bears, Project Payback, and Matter have all been discontinued, resulting in substantial losses for the company in terms of staff and financial performance. Bungie appears to be placing all its bets on the success of Marathon, with many Destiny developers now transitioning to work on this new venture. With numerous projects being canceled and core team members being laid off, the outlook for Bungie seems bleak.
Many Destiny 2 players are already departing the game in search of alternative live-service games to explore, such as Warframe, The First Descendant, and various MMOs. Additionally, Marathon will face tough competition from established extraction shooter titles like Escape from Tarkov, Dark and Darker, and Hunt: Showdown. If Marathon fails to make an impact in the market, it could spell disaster for Bungie.
Concerns regarding the studio’s leadership have been amplified by reports of CEO Pete Parsons’ extravagant purchases of vintage cars. Despite the mass layoffs of key staff members like Michael Salvatori and Luke Smith, the revelation of Parsons’ spending habits has further eroded player trust, leading many to abandon Destiny 2 altogether.
Will There Be A Destiny 3?
Given the current circumstances at Bungie, the likelihood of a Destiny 3 being developed seems slim, as the company is focusing on expanding the current game’s content offerings. With multiple project cancellations coming to light, the prospects of a Destiny 3 entering development are grim. Bungie is currently striving to sustain itself through the Episodes model, but this might not be sufficient to retain both new and existing players.
If the game continues along this development trajectory, it may not be long before Destiny 2 loses its player base and fades into obscurity. Only through continued innovation and surpassing player expectations has Destiny 2 achieved its past successes.
Should Marathon achieve financial success, there may be a small chance of Bungie exploring new projects in the future. However, the current emphasis on live service games in the development process stifles creativity and may delay any discussions about a potential Destiny 3 for years to come.