Long running live-service video game Destiny 2 finally meets its end, but this is more a story of how developers Bungie tanked a company worth billions. Destiny 2 should have probably lasted another year or so based on previous plans. However, yesterday it was announced by Bungie that the upcoming update on June 9th would be the final live update to the game. That’s it, no more updates or expansions, though the servers will remain online so the game can be replayed. 

You can find all the details in Bungie’s latest official post, including details on all the QOL upgrades they had intended to drop across the next year that are coming now instead. However, it sounds like what is not coming, is the promised new story progression that was previously announced (and paid for by many including me). 

All the details are in the link and there’s nothing more I’ll say about that in this article. I’m more interested in how Bungie, recently bought by Sony for over $3.5 billion have managed to tank the value of their company to almost nothing since. 

What Went Right?

Let’s start by pointing out how popular a game Destiny and then Destiny 2 were. There really was nothing like it. The Division and its sequel was a grounded, more realistic take. Warframe isn’t really an FPS, though continues to be a popular FPS MMO live-service game. In other words Destiny was unique and popular.

It’s highs are extremely high and there are some impressive numbers and profits made on this game which is over 10 years old. Sony bought Bungie based on the strength of the Destiny product and IP.

However, it’s not all been highs and Bungie has continually shot themselves in the foot through poor decision making.

What Went Wrong?

The first thing Bungie really messed up was the vanilla release of Destiny 2. I won’t go into details, but they essentially made it a shell of what it had been in the previous old gen game. Sales were high, player retention was low.

Bungie then reworked all the bad aspects and dropped a mammoth update which sold really well and put the game back on top. Then, they decided the engine could not cope and vaulted a massive amount of content, restricting the onboarding process for new players. Therefore, they lost players again.

We go through several years of Bungie making bad choices, then reacting to player feedback and recovering, until most recently. Post-The Final Shape, which really should have been the end of Destiny 2 and the start of preparing for a Destiny 3, Bungie decided to keep going. The Final Shape was peak, an absolutely brilliant expansion that attracted 1.7 million players on launch. However, many players moved on afterwards.

At this point Bungie should have been developing Destiny 3, ready to take over and grab the player base all over again. Instead, they chose to pour more and more resources into developing a complete different genre of game.

Marathon

Marathon is an extraction shooter, and for some reason, Bungie, nor Sony seemed to realise how niche of a genre that kind of game is. There’s one or two very successful games and a ton of failures. For some reason Bungie had most of their team working on Marathon, whilst a plan was put in place to drag Destiny 2 on for a while longer using minimal resources.

Marathon sold decently. However, the player drop off was severe and as I type this the currently dead on it’s feet, never been this low player count, Destiny 2 still has more players on Steam than Marathon, which launched just a few months ago. Many Destiny players tried it, but they didn’t like it. Destiny streamers all tried it and some enjoyed it, whilst most simply went on to other games or back to Destiny 1 whilst they awaited news of Destiny‘s future. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the game directors on the previous The Final Shape are all replaced for a new plan. Let’s make the game really grindy with minimal new resources so we can focus on Marathon. Edge of Fate drops with whole new systems and an artificially enforced grind that forced players to play the same activity again and again to get their power level up.

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Bungie went on to improve this system a little in the next of that two-part expansion Renegades. Renegades was a Star Wars crossover and honestly pretty decent, but the player count had not recovered because not enough players bought this due to Edge of Fate and how it played. Delays to what comes next then saw the player numbers drop to their lowest ever.

Now Bungie has an issue, the plan to lengthen the game with no updates has been rumbled and they have no staff to make new content. Hence, the final update which spawned this article. 

Bungie have made the decision to double down on Marathon and are now planning a big update to try and get players back. Don’t like extractions shooters? That’s okay, they’re now bringing in new PVE modes and PVP maps (like Destiny) to attract new players. 

However, I don’t think Marathon would even make half the money a new Destiny 2 update would have done, never mind a Destiny 3. Their big IP is dead and their new one isn’t selling, meaning what are they actually worth now as a company?

Destiny 3?

But surely they can just pivot and make a Destiny 3 right? Well, it appears not, the rumors are that if there is such a thing as Destiny 3, it’s just the words on a piece of paper on a board. The team are almost all working on turning Marathon into a completely different game from the one they marketed and sold. 

There are also rumors of staff being laid off, which means a downsizing. Whoever is left working on what comes next for Bungie will be a small team. If there is a Destiny 3, you likely won’t see it till the 2030’s and who knows if it will still work then?

If the next Marathon update doesn’t make the game the best thing ever, then it’s likely it’s never going to be big. I mean, it’s a PC game mostly as opposed to console. Destiny is both, but always more popular on consoles than Marathon and Destiny 2 has more people playing on PC than Marathon. Hell, there’s probably more people back on console playing D1 than there is on Marathon.

The money, and the audience is there. A Destiny 3 announcement would be huge, but there’s no sign of it and even if it did come it’s going to be years away. Bungie chose Marathon and despite continual failure, prioritised it over their main IP and allowed that main IP to essentially fade away and be killed off. Now they are doubling down on that call.

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Maybe one day game developers will work out that their ‘vision’ really doesn’t sell their games. I remember Epic forcefully refusing to give players what they wanted in Gears of War 2 because they ‘knew better’. That franchise died and likewise Bungie have continually not given players what they wanted in Destiny, instead of just giving the market what it wants and collecting the money.

By the time a Destiny 3 gets going there may be no actual studio called Bungie any longer. It ,may just be an old IP owned by Sony.  

Backlash

Last night saw streamers who have built their careers on Destiny in tears online. Not just for the fact it’s ending, but that their careers may also be over. It’s amazing how many full time and part time streamers Destiny 2 supported that had an audience. Most of these streamers were actually calling for the game to end, (but only after development had begin to start again in a Destiny 3). Those streamers are now realising that even if there is a Destiny 3, which seems unlikely right now, it won’t be out for 5 years. That’s potentially career ending and whilst it’s not Bungie or Sony’s job to provide income to streamers, I think it shows you how popular the game remained for a such a long time. 

You can’t stream Marathon full time for several reasons. One, it’s purely PVP and once viewers have watched a few matches they get bored. Two there’s no guides or builds needed and most players are getting fragged and having all their cool gear taken off them by the best, or luckiest players. The Destiny players aren’t all into it and neither are the streamers who got bored real fast.

I’ve never seen so many successful careers potentially end in one fell swoop and seen that emotional fallout happen live. It was surreal. There’s also a hatred building towards Bungie and Marathon, which means it’s doubtful Bungie will attract them in to that game with their new PVE modes. 

TLDR:

Bungie makes successful game that’s unique and manages to keep selling expansion for it for a decade, despite a ton of big mistakes. Company increases in value and owners sell it to Sony. Bungie make more mistakes and then focus all their energies into a new game which is a failure. Old game that made them billons dies as a result. Sony are out $3.5 billion and nothing is on the horizon to make more money. 

What a way to run a company eh folks? Yet we see this kind of thing happen all the time in the movie world so why am I surprised here? 

Leave any thoughts you have below about Destiny 2 finally ending and how Bungie tanked their own company. 

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