In just a few days, Bungie will wrap up the story of its household shooter Destiny 2. It’s been a 10-year odyssey, with its fair share of ups and downs: from its early lack of content to a fantastic expansion in The Taken King, a then-unnecessary sequel followed by another fantastic expansion in Forsaken, trailed by years of inconsistent seasonal models. The series, it’s fair to say, has followed a rocky road to get to where it is today.
On June 4, this decade-long story will be concluded in one last expansion, The Final Shape. Yet despite some extremely rough periods, especially around the Curse Of Osiris downloadable content (DLC) and last year’s lukewarm Lightfall expansion, it has never felt more like Destiny 2 was clinging on for survival.
As a die-hard fan who’s been there for all of Destiny‘s ups and downs, the last year has been worrying. Player numbers have dwindled after Lightfall’s mixed reception. Bungie’s round of layoffs last year removed veteran developers that had been at the company for up to a quarter of a century, such as Michael Salvatori, and trimmed important departments like the community and player security teams.
Amidst all of that, we have slowly seen an exodus of some of the people who have kept Destiny 2 going for the last five or six years. That includes game director Joe Blackburn, who has effectively steered the ship since a lot of Destiny leads moved over to work on Bungie’s next game – the mysterious shooter Marathon.
Now, there are reports that Bungie faces being taken over completely by Sony, which would result in the developer losing the independence it’s held onto since the console maker acquired it in 2022. When the studio was bought, Sony and Bungie reportedly struck a deal that said that certain financial targets had to be met to avoid Bungie’s existing board being dissolved. Last year, Bloomberg noted that the studio’s sales were running 45 per cent lower than projected.
With the studio’s independence potentially in jeopardy, all of this has put the spotlight on The Final Shape. Right now, it feels as if its performance and reception will decide what Bungie’s future looks like. If it performs well, then perhaps little will change. The pressure of an impending Sony takeover may ease, at least temporarily, and Destiny 2 will continue trucking along with updates and its episodic content that will arrive after The Final Shape’s release.
But if The Final Shape struggles to meaningfully conclude Destiny 2’s story and fails to bring players in, Bungie’s future seems far more perilous. A Sony takeover will be on everyone’s minds, and all eyes will turn to Marathon to change the extraction shooter genre – which so many studios have tried their hand at in recent years – just as Destiny defined the looter-shooter and set the studio’s course back in 2014.
For Bungie fans and Destiny 2 die-hards like myself, The Final Shape’s release is an incredibly nerve-racking time. A high-pressure moment where Bungie’s legacy could be changed for better or worse. While Bungie has surprised Destiny 2 players and exceeded our expectations many times, is this task simply too great? For myself, Bungie needs to prove this 10-year journey was worth it with some huge story payoffs and give me a reason to be excited for its future, whether that be teasing a new saga or providing a range of activities and rewards to keep chasing.
It’s been a decade, but I’ve never stopped being surprised by what Bungie is capable of at its best. If all the stars align during development, I truly believe the studio can pull this off: and after all these years, still have hope.
Destiny 2: The Final Shape launches on June 4 for PlayStation, Xbox and PC.