It’s not a good time for Bungie. This year’s Destiny 2 expansion, The Edge of Fate, is widely regarded as one of the worst expansions the game has ever seen – a big feat to achieve when you’re 11 years old. As intriguing as some of the new story developments in the expanding world of Destiny are, little could soften the impact of some atrocious decision-making from the sandbox and gear teams within the studio: the grind in Destiny has rarely been worse, and fans’ patience for the MMOFPS is becoming increasingly thin.
Even the blowout reveal of what should have been a slam dunk for Bungie – a Star Wars collab that was initially announced back in May – has been met with apathy and disinterest. Renegades (to give the event its proper name) will be the first ever crossover-themed campaign in Destiny’s complicated history, and operates in a muddy middle ground between full crossover and vague skin-based collab.
“Renegades merges Destiny’s distinctive storytelling and gameplay with themes and elements drawn from the iconic sci-fi franchise,” Bungie enthuses in its own press release. In the expansion, we “will defy the Vanguard” to pursue Drifter across Sol, navigating a world of shadows and syndicates in the new social hub, Tharsis Outpost, as we work across story missions to build a crew and resist a rising faction tied to the Nine.
Go and see a Star War.Watch on YouTube
As you can see from the video above, Renegades positions an activity called the Lawless Frontier front and center: per Bungie, it’s “a chaotic, cooperative new game mode, where players take on a variety of high-risk jobs and contracts to earn reputation, unlock all-new Renegade abilities that change the tide of battle, and wield weapons that include the iconic Praxic Blade and an energy-based arsenal from the new Blaster archetype.” A new dungeon is also promised to land after the expansion’s launch on 2nd December.
But, frankly, who cares? This should have been a home run for Bungie – a big crossover like this is often catnip for MMO ride-or-dies – but the general consensus amongst the community at the moment is one of exhausted apathy. After the presentation that debuted information on both Renegades and the other incoming expansion, Ash & Iron, the top post on Destiny’s dedicated Subreddit reads: I think tonight this is a breakpoint for many people and Bungie as a whole. Another bemoans “Almost everything in this “Major Update” is reskinned/reissued, except [the paid shop]”, and every single top post in the dedicated megathread about Renegades is critical of Bungie.
Now, I’ve been a member of /r/DestinyTheGame for about 12 years, and even since the early days (alpha and beta for D1!), the sub has had toxicity issues. Go figure. But this is something else: I don’t think I’ve ever seen the community so fed up and bored with basically everything that is suggested.
The problem is three-fold: as well as Bungie losing key staff that have overseen the Destiny vision since inception, the remaining designers have also implemented sandbox aspects players actively hate – namely, The Portal, a high-grind, low-reward anomaly of game design that actively punishes you for wanting choice in the things you do and the gear you equip. Decisions like these seem to manifest because of a studio culture that “stem from a lack of player empathy, disconnected leadership, and a corporate-first culture,” per one recent report.
Diminishing returns. | Image credit: Eurogamer/SteamDB
At this point, it feels like Bungie’s back is against a wall: player numbers are dropping, player satisfaction is low, and even massive crossover events like Star Wars are failing to stem the haemorrhaging. As a big new update lands, concurrent player counts on Steam are even struggling to reach 50k – a historic low for the game. Will this trend reverse by December, when the Star Wars update actually launches? We’ll have to wait and see but right now, it doesn’t seem likely.
