Since the Final Shape expansion tied the knot of the latest narrative arc in June 2024, Destiny 2 has clearly gone on a downward espiral. This summer, the Edge of Fate DLC was very poorly received by players. So much so, that it has mostly negative reviews on Steam.
Bungie is well aware of this and hopes to turn things around with the release of Destiny 2: Rebels on December 2. In an interview with IGN, director Tyson Green reflected on this difficult transition.
“The Final Shape brought things to a crescendo, where it’s like a fantastic ending that tied off a lot of the threads. People were pleased and satisfied with what they played, and then the big [downwards] spike in population [came after]. That happened because we ended the saga. So you get what you pay for, right?
That wasn’t the plan from the business perspective. We still want to keep making Destiny; we still have many stories to tell in this universe. There are still lots of things to do, and we have to keep building the game. Unfortunately, it was not gracefully managed, but we had to try something.”
For Green, The Edge of Fate placed too much emphasis on farming to reach a bigger level. The rewards weren’t there, and players quite logically lost motivation.
“I think we’ve been taught a bunch of hard lessons about what our players want, and there are really two kinds of live games: those that listen to the players and respond, and those that don’t. And we don’t want to be a dead live game, we want to keep building Destiny.
So we’re listening to our players, and what our players are telling us is that they don’t want to chase a simple number that goes up, they want real rewards.”
It’s interesting to see Bungie addressing the challenges with The Edge of Fate DLC. Acknowledging shortcomings is an important step in improving the game experience for everyone. Looking forward to how they plan to move forward!
It’s great to see Bungie being transparent about their challenges with The Edge of Fate DLC. This kind of honesty can really help rebuild trust with the community. It will be interesting to see how they apply these lessons in future expansions to enhance the overall player experience.
It really is refreshing to see that level of transparency from Bungie. Acknowledging their missteps could pave the way for more thoughtful updates in the future. It’s also interesting to consider how player feedback from this experience might influence the development of future expansions.