Don’t Mourn Destiny 2, Be Grateful That It Existed

When the news broke that Destiny 2 would be receiving its final major update on June 9, I had to read the entire announcement several times before it sunk in. I've got thousands of hours in the game, resulting in thousands of fond memories, and it's easily the game I've committed most of my time to. Destiny 2 was always more about the people that I was playing with–it just so happened to have one of the best narratives I've ever experienced. I feel like I know those characters. I've been with them through their trials and tribulations. I've rooted for them when they were faced with seemingly impossible scenarios. The thought of coming face-to-face with The Witness felt unfathomable to me in the early years and yet, as the day crept ever closer, I finally had hope that everything would work out. And it did. As a result, The Final Shape earned the first–and only–perfect review score of my career. Hearing that Bungie would be ending active development on Destiny 2 caused a wave of sadness tinged with disbelief. I always figured the game would be there to jump into with my friends when the new expansions were released, or if we fancied poring several hours into the latest raid. It turns out, I'm far from alone in that. Destiny 2 content creator Luckyy10p put together a petition online with the aim of showing Bungie's parent company, Sony, just how many people would be interested in Destiny 3. Forbes reported shortly after the announcement that Destiny 3 was considered, but the more likely solution would have been returning to one larger annual expansion, and renaming the game Destiny Infinity. At the moment, it seems neither option is in development. As it stands, there is no future for the Destiny franchise. Speaking to GameSpot, Luckyy10p noted that the petition was created to demonstrate demand, and reminded players to "be realistic." He added, "Criticism and passion often go hand in hand. Some of the loudest critics of Destiny 2 over the years have also been some of its biggest supporters." While it's obvious that decisions of this scale involve millions of dollars in development costs, Luckyy10p hopes that the popularity of the petition will cause executives to seriously discuss the future of Destiny. "A petition by itself does not green-light a game," he said, "It can show executives and decision makers that there is still a passionate audience that wants more Destiny. It becomes one piece of evidence among many that people still care deeply about the franchise." That petition, at the time of writing, stands at more than 330,000 verified signatures, and doesn't show any sign of slowing down. "I'm genuinely curious to see how high the number will be by June 9, but we'll continue rallying the community long after that date. New players will be trying Destiny 2 for the first time, existing players will be revisiting old memories, and fans will continue showing that they care about this universe." In terms of what the future could potentially look like for Destiny, Luckyy10p said, "The biggest thing Bungie needs to do is provide clarity and a long-term vision. Many players feel the game would have benefited from more transparency about where things were headed over the last few years. When people invest thousands of hours into a franchise, they naturally want to understand what the future looks like." After winning Best Community Support at The Game Awards in 2019, Bungie seemed to lose its bond with the community. Following multiple rounds of layoffs, and a shift towards less transparent communication, players no longer felt connected to the game or the people making it. "Recently, we're starting to see Bungie move back in that direction … Increased communication, developer conversations, and willingness to engage with feedback have gotten fans more excited than I've seen them since The Final Shape," Luckyy10p noted. "If Bungie and Sony can present a compelling vision for what's next, whether that's Destiny 3 or another major project within the universe, I think players would be willing to come back and support it." Luckyy10p is far from the only creator urging Sony and Bungie to consider Destiny 3, though. Fellow content creator Aztecross has always been one of the most vocal supporters, and critics, of the game. In a recent YouTube video of his, titled 'We've Got to be Loud," he said, "I'm thinking tomorrow during the Sony livestream, there's going to be so much spamming they're going to put [the chat] in emote-only mode. If they put it in emote-only mode, we've got an answer to that. We've got to light this shit up." Aztecross has created an emote, available to subscribers of his Twitch channel, that features the words "We Want," above the Destiny logo with a 3. "I want every time Sony looks over there, to be like, 'What the fuck is going on right now?'" Cross is referring to the upcoming Sony State of Play livestream which is taking place as part of Summer Game Fest's week of showcas

When the news broke that Destiny 2 would be receiving its final major update on June 9, I had to read the entire announcement several times before it sunk in. I've got thousands of hours in the game, resulting in thousands of fond memories, and it's easily the game I've committed most of my time…

When the news broke that Destiny 2 would be receiving its final major update on June 9, I had to read the entire announcement several times before it sunk in. I've got thousands of hours in the game, resulting in thousands of fond memories, and it's easily the game I've committed most of my time to. Destiny 2 was always more about the people that I was playing with–it just so happened to have one of the best narratives I've ever experienced. I feel like…