Bungie has announced plans to take Destiny 2 in a new direction in Season 11 and beyond, after their hugely-popular title copped a hefty helping of backlash from the community due to a series of “lackluster” content drops in 2020 so far.
After Bungie’s highly-publicized divorce from publisher Activision in January, the developers have been flying solo on their looter-shooter franchise. Fans expected the split to refresh the struggling franchise. It seems to have done the opposite.
There have been a few wins for the devs. Destiny’s competitive playlist Trials of Osiris made its long-awaited return in Season 10. Unfortunately, the response was lukewarm. Some fans have even gone as far as to demand Activision return.
Basically, it’s panic stations for Destiny. The game itself has benefited from the decision to take it free-to-play, but overall the mood has soured. Bungie’s switch from expansions to new season passes is at the forefront of community outcry.
The ongoing backlash has sparked movement in Bungie’s ranks. Community manager Dylan ‘dmg04’ Gafner promised “huge changes” on the way, while director Luke Smith confirmed a move away from their much-hated “FOMO” strategy.
Bungie unveils ‘new direction’ for Destiny in next seasons
According to production director Justin Truman, who addressed concerns in a dev blog post earlier this week, Bungie would be “trying something a little different” to win back the host of fans streaming away from the game.
“There’s been a growing list of concerns with the game lately — Trials [of Osiris], the rise in PC cheaters, our new Seasonal model, the balance between rewards you earn vs. items you buy. We’ve been closely watching,” he revealed.
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Another of the game’s community managers, Cozmo, echoed Truman’s sentiment. He added in a Reddit thread Bungie was “well aware” fans were experiencing “a lot of bounty fatigue right now,” and confirmed plans to change that.
When could these “huge changes” arrive in Destiny 2?
Unfortunately, none of the Bungie voices speaking out have confirmed when these planned changes may ship. There have been some vague dates set, however: “the arrival of Season 12” was mentioned by Smith on Twitter.
“[We already have] a lot of good stuff in Destiny,” the franchise director also said. “There is also a long way to go before we have it in a place we are truly proud of. We are going to be talking about next steps in the coming weeks.”
https://twitter.com/thislukesmith/status/1253443978948571136?s=20
It’s not a lot to go off — especially without any hard and fast details on what is planned to fix Destiny — but it’s certainly still cause for celebration. For Bungie to break radio silence, they must have realized they had to act, and fast.
For now, Guardians will have to make do with the current event playing out in the online FPS series, the “Guardian Games.” These Olympics-like challenges have pitted Warlocks, Hunters, and Titans together in a series of bounty-based trials.