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The End Of A ‘Destiny' Era, For Real This Time, As ‘The Edge Of Fate' Launches
The End Of A ‘Destiny' Era, For Real This Time, As ‘The Edge Of Fate' Launches

Forbes

time3 days ago

  • Entertainment
  • Forbes

The End Of A ‘Destiny' Era, For Real This Time, As ‘The Edge Of Fate' Launches

Destiny 2 There has been a lot of talk about how Destiny has had different eras over the years, but there's really only been one, even across two games. That has been the Light and Darkness saga, which began in the first game when we learned (very little) about the mysterious, power-giving orb, The Traveler, and a Darkness it was running away across the galaxy from. The ended ten years later in Destiny 2 with last year's The Final Shape expansion. The Darkness turned out to be a guy with a lot of arms and a smoky head, and the Traveler turned out to be kind of a dick. But it was a thrilling end to a wild swing of ups and downs over the course of the next decade. They stuck the landing. Cue applause. But to quote Dr. Manhattan, 'Nothing ends. Nothing ever ends.' That is especially true in the live-service world as Bungie now presses forward under massive pressure and expectations from Sony, plagued by poor leadership and mass layoffs. The Destiny 2 team is doing what they can with a studio half the size it was a few years ago with large chunks now working on non-Destiny projects. In the Forsaken years, this was once a company of 1300+ almost wholly devoted to a single game with even two support studios in tow. Now, they're down to hundreds, and whatever the opposite of support is, that's what they're being given. Destiny 2 Destiny 2 is changing with The Edge of Fate, live today. It's shrinking. There is a lot of wishy-washing about how much exactly it's shrinking, but it's going to be significant. The game has completely transformed from its large expansion/four seasons model into two smaller expansions and things called 'Major Updates' in between, smaller than a season and described more like an Into the Light bonus round-type addition. But in practice, the facts are that The Edge of Fate launches with: The goal now is to release expansion content, but moment-to-moment, herd players into a series of 'portal' playlists that range from the extremely basic, Lost Sectors for solo players, to a hodgepodge of Destiny's past in Fireteam Ops, strikes, battlegrounds, empire hunts, seasonal activities and all other manner of things. A final portal offers tougher missions, right now, just past exotic missions. All of this, all things we've played already, is meant to be juiced up using a new modifier system to make things more challenging (or fun) as you pursue a higher score for greater rewards. Gear is getting streamlined into a simple Tier 1-5 system where it's pretty clear what that means, and it's pretty clear where you get those gear levels, something Destiny has been missing for a while. But we're going to be in an awkward transition phase as 'soft sunsetting' slowly makes all gear not originally acquired under this system slowly worse (nothing you already own can or will be tier 4 or 5). Armor is being torn down and rebuilt altogether for the first time since the entire mod system was introduced in the first place. I can agree it was probably long past time for that. Destiny 2 The story is…well, we barely know anything. We thought we did, but none of it is going as planned. My theory, which mirrored many others, was that the Heresy episode would end with us taking the Dreadnaught out of our solar system, as promised, and heading to new worlds in the galaxy, possibly the homeworlds of some of our enemies. Rather, we're not doing that. We're stopping at the edge of the system at a made-up planet called Kepler, and this new era will put us into conflict/servitude with The Nine, the mysterious entity that has been with us since the first day Xur sold us exotics in Destiny 1. Since then, they've given us some seasonal activities, a dungeon and a game show hosted by a sparkling horse. Now, Bungie is coloring them in, each member getting their own personality and set of goals. On Kepler? We have little idea how this is all starting on this micro-planet that has somehow been pulling pieces of Earth's past through time. I mean it's all weird enough where I'm interested, certainly. This is a new, quieter era for Destiny. The player peaks of The Final Shape, the grand finale, are not coming back, and The Edge of Fate will be lucky to get a third as many players at launch. The question now is whether this new content has enough to retain the core players that make up the remaining base, but if Destiny can also simplify itself in its new post-Light and Darkness era to attract new players or at the very least, bring back some who got lost. Some aspects of this feel like they can do that. But the overall sense of 'it's just too late,' tends to pervade. I'll be there, as ever. Until the sun dies, it seems. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy

There's A Misconception About ‘Destiny 2' And ‘Marathon' Development
There's A Misconception About ‘Destiny 2' And ‘Marathon' Development

Forbes

time15-04-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Forbes

There's A Misconception About ‘Destiny 2' And ‘Marathon' Development

Destiny 2/Marathon While this week has been all about Marathon, Marathon, Marathon, little attention has been paid to its younger brother, Destiny 2. Except quotes that are about whether or not this game is for those players. Here's Game Director Joe Ziegler speaking to GamesRadar: While I'm sure Bungie wants some Destiny players on board with Marathon, the goal is neither to cannibalize Destiny nor end its development in favor of Marathon. There has been a consistent narrative that Bungie is almost wholly focused on Marathon now, leaving Destiny 2 in the dust. The reality is not that, and more devs at Bungie have been and are currently working on Destiny 2 than Marathon. By last count, there are now 850 employees at Bungie proper, about half of what it used to be between layoffs, departures and Sony siphoning off some roles. But of that team, 300 are working on Marathon while ~550 are working on Destiny 2, nearly double. Yes, that is obviously less than there used to be, and we are heading into an era with less Destiny 2 content, but the narrative that the majority of Bungie has moved over to Marathon just isn't true. At least not right now. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Destiny 2 Frontiers Why? Shouldn't Bungie have all hands on deck for Marathon so close to release here? Well, two issues with that: It's certainly a tough situation. Bungie has scaled down so much in recent years that it's been extremely difficult to keep up the same cadence and scope. But they still managed to top themselves with The Final Shape release. And whether Episodes landed or not, they still had a lot of content development at baseline. Developing Marathon at the same time has no doubt stretched Bungie thin, and it seems to have come at the cost of development of a Destiny 3, which is probably the most unfortunate part of this situation. But no, Bungie is not wholly devoted to Marathon at this point, even if it's the main topic of conversation. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Bluesky Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.

How Long Will ‘Destiny 2: Frontiers' Be Delayed?
How Long Will ‘Destiny 2: Frontiers' Be Delayed?

Forbes

time09-04-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Forbes

How Long Will ‘Destiny 2: Frontiers' Be Delayed?

Destiny 2 Look, I hope I'm wrong about this, but at this point, with Destiny 2's Heresy Episode ending, and attention turned toward the new Frontiers era of the game, I'm wondering just how much it's going to be delayed past its stated release window. I was complaining a bit after the finale that Heresy did not seem to paint anything resembling a clear path toward Frontiers, narratively. But past that, it's more about what we haven't seen from Frontiers so far and that is…almost anything at all. We have some concept art, we have a conceptual roadmap with codenamed expansions and a few minor blog posts about coming changes. I do understand that Bungie does not currently want to step on Marathon stuff, with a big reveal coming this Saturday, but the supposed release date for Frontiers is just three months away, July 15, according to when the current battle pass ends (and weirdly, possibly a clue in the Marathon ARG). Is that possible, though? I went back and checked and there was just a wildly larger window between reveal/preorders and the release of past expansions (most of which were delayed a number of months). That includes the likes of The Final Shape, which could be pre-ordered in May 2023 before a June 2024 release, and The Witch Queen, which could be pre-ordered August 2021 before a February 2022 release. Destiny 2 Frontiers FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Again, I get the current Marathon buzz, but having this little info, no pre-orders and not even pricing or a name for the first Frontiers expansion allegedly three months before release does not indicate to me this is actually going to be released in three months. If this ages poorly, great, I hope it does. There are two factors to consider here. The first is that Frontiers is an entirely new era of the game and Bungie may want to keep that under wraps. Though I would argue previously they have not cared about keeping huge expansion plot points secret between Cayde's death in Forsaken and showcasing The Final Shape in a way that made the storylines of the year before it somewhat irrelevant. So it wouldn't be the first time. The second is what everyone in the industry is stressed about, the GTA 6 release date, allegedly coming this fall (I still have my doubts). So, if Frontiers/Apollo has to be delayed until fall, we wouldn't know when in the fall, probably, until GTA 6 is announced, as no one wants to be anywhere near that atom bomb. Given where we are now, what we don't know, and Bungie's past history of delaying expansions, I don't think this is making it out in July, or maybe even summer. Also, while the Destiny team is separate, it's still clear that the studio is gearing up for a massive Marathon push at the same time. I just don't seen how this comes together in three months. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Bluesky Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.

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