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Why Destiny Died (RIP 2014-2026)

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


An obituary for Destiny and Destiny 2.
  • (00:02–00:47) The speaker, games journalist Jason Schreier, recalls receiving a copy of Destiny in 2014 while working at Kotaku. Although he initially expected to play only briefly, the game quickly became an obsession, consuming around 500 hours in just two months.
  • (00:47–02:33) He explains that part of Destiny's magic came from its flaws and friction. Complaining about the game with friends became part of the social experience, especially during raids like Vault of Glass and Crota's End. The mystery and lack of hand-holding in raids created memorable cooperative moments.
  • (02:55–04:26) The expansion The Taken King is described as a major turning point that elevated Destiny's quality. However, the release of Destiny 2 and its hard reset of player progress caused the speaker to lose interest, especially as the sequel never captured the same addictive feeling.
  • (04:26–05:44) Bungie announced that Destiny 2 would receive one final update before entering maintenance mode, effectively ending active development for the franchise. Schreier reports that there is currently no Destiny 3 in development, and Bungie is instead prototyping ideas while preparing for layoffs.
  • (05:44–07:26) The video reviews Destiny's origins after Bungie split from Microsoft and signed a huge publishing deal with Activision. The original plan envisioned a decade-long franchise cycle of numbered sequels and major expansions.
  • (07:26–10:28) Internal struggles over Destiny 2's delays led to leadership changes at Bungie. Eventually, Bungie rejected Activision's preference for frequent sequels and annualized releases, choosing instead to turn Destiny 2 into a long-term live-service platform. This disagreement contributed to Bungie and Activision splitting in 2019.
  • (10:28–12:57) After becoming free-to-play and later being acquired by Sony for $3.6 billion in 2022, Destiny 2 gradually declined in player engagement despite successful expansions like The Final Shape. Bungie also canceled projects such as "Payback," a rumored third-person Destiny spin-off.
  • (13:15–16:28) Schreier argues that modern AAA game development costs are the biggest reason Destiny 3 is not happening. He estimates a new Destiny game could cost $300–500 million before marketing, making it extremely risky in today's gaming market where development budgets continue rising while player spending stagnates.
  • (16:28–19:53) The speaker highlights broader industry problems: overwhelming competition, live-service fatigue, player loyalty to games like Fortnite and Minecraft, and the rising costs of both development and consumer living expenses. Bungie is now focusing resources on Marathon while exploring smaller-scale future projects.
  • (19:53–21:42) Schreier ends on a personal note, explaining how reporting on Destiny's troubled development helped launch his career as an author through his book Blood, Sweat, and Pixels. Despite Destiny's flaws, he considers it deeply meaningful because of the friendships, memories, and career opportunities it created.
 
His voice is so heavenly :lollipop_grinning_sweat:
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Destiny 2 removed a ton of the early content from the game including paid stuff. They made an excuse about saving space but at the end of the day, they only cared about milking their paying customers and screwing over new players by making their onboarding experience terrible. It didn't end up working for them.

It's really that simple. They created a live service game that didn't care about attracting new players.
 
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Wow, I have never heard this dude talk. He sounds MTF.

Anyway, I loved the first destiny, but I remember before it released they said that they projected or planned that their series would be as big as Star Wars was, which to me seemed ridiculous. I never took much to the second game, it felt good to play but the magic was gone. Also, as much of a douche bag Peter Dinklage is, he was a way better Ghost than Nolan North is, as great as Nolan North is.

If they released a PS5 version of the first game I would jump back in.
 
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Jason? Ewww....

Desinty died because Bungie was up their asses after Halo and though they could do nothing wrong. Many people left after Halo Reach. They then tasted the huge amounts of money and become really terrible with their players.

Microsoft was not the problem, Activision was not the problem, Sony is not the problem. The problem is current Bungie.
 
broooooo that's what Jason Schrier sounds like? omg that voice.

Anyway I never played Destiny, but I did enjoy Dalfang's video on how Destiny 3 "Died 3 times"
 
Guy sounds weird. It's like he has the voice of a kid in grade 8. I dont think he has a lisp dragging S sounds, but his tongue gets in the way so that's why his pronunciation of words sounds odd.

No wonder in his years of gaming journo he does text articles than speak.
 
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Destiny died because it was just an end of a financial period and bungie were tanking across the board.
 
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Destiny had a date with destiny
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Anyways, I remember watching Giant Bomb play a raid in Destiny 1. I've never actually played a raid myself because I don't like mmos, so it was interesting to see that mmo players are apparently way into following orders by raid leaders who themselves are reading off a guide they found online lol. It's the opposite of everything I enjoy about games. It was pretty cool to watch though, it reminded me of Drakengard and Nier for some reason, specifically the modern ending that's like a rhythm game. Bungie used to have really cool art and aesthetics.
 
Guy sounds like a TV/CD but it's the extended pronunciation of words that is annoying.

Destiny and Bungie are finished Sony will close them within 12 months and that's being very generous.
 
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Greed and mismanagement is why Destiny died. I used to be in a very active clan 120+ strong dating back to the early days of D1. I can pinpoint exactly when the vast majority of them walked away from Destiny 2 and never looked back. It was when they took away content we paid for; when they added season passes to expansions to justify doubling their annual cost; when they started putting dungeon keys behind paywalls or the most expensive expansion upgrades; when they ignored community feedback about expansions being light on content and left PVP and Gambit stagnant for years.

But when I point this out, I'm told I'm being "dramatic". 🙄 Most people don't have infinite time or money and Bungie kept demanding more of both while the rest of the industry was moving forward with new products.
 
There were numerous times I wanted to try and jump into Destiny 2 after hearing people gush about it and how much fun they were having.

But… the content moratoriums and the impossibility of trying to learn the game always kept me away. That was the issue. Whatever base they cultivated, they did everything possible to ensure that would be the ENTIRE audience. There was no way to onboard and know what the heck was going on. Instead of attempting to grow the base, they simply monetized who they already had and then began to irritate many of those folks as well due to the greed as well as the inconsistency of expansions and other decisions.

It was an amazing, textbook example of how to screw up something that could have been iconically big for so many more years. It was not hard to get this right. And yet…

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