There's some reshuffling going on at Bungie - one of the gaming industry's most renowned development studios. Harold Ryan, who has been been at the company for 15 years, has stepped down as CEO, and former COO Pete Parsons has replaced him at the top.
Of course, many of you will know that Bungie is the developer behind Destiny, which has hit something of a rough patch as of late. We won't go into too much detail here, but the gist of it is that players are struggling to come up with a good reason to keep playing the sci-fi shooter - mostly because they've exhausted the content that came with last year's great expansion, The Taken King. Needless to say, unrest has been growing among the community, and since there's been no clear plan of action set out by Bungie for the rest of 2016, rumours have been going around that the developer is in a tough spot.
Word of Ryan's departure comes at a somewhat worrying time, then, although there's no way to be sure that any of this is actually connected. Nevertheless, new CEO Parsons has already saw fit to address the Destiny community, stating that "To the players of Destiny, I want you to know that my number one priority, and Bungie's, is and always has been to deliver great games that we can all share together."
He continues: "I believe that Destiny is a one-of-a-kind experience. I also believe you have yet to see our studio's best work. My new role here at the studio will be entirely focused on fulfilling that promise." Ryan, meanwhile, has yet to comment on his withdrawal from the studio.
So, what do you make of this? Is something going down at Bungie, or is the company just switching things around? Are you happy with Parson's comments about Destiny? Decrypt some engrams in the comments section below.
[source gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 24
Whether it was forced or not, it does appear connected, especially with the lack of anything significant Destiny wise... We had Destiny 1, Dark Below and HoW in the space of six months, saw two more minor DLC packs after Taken King on their leaked roadmap... Which disappeared... Taken King was never going to last that long! Bring something good to Destiny and bring me back to the game!
I'll probably stay away until their contact with Activision ends.
Well, hopefully they're in good hands. I loved their work with Halo, but the Destiny age has been both good and a dork period for the studio.
understandable, seeing how messing Destiny is...
I am so glad I didn't fall for the Taken King trap and didn't buy that "major" expansion. Destiny was fun for 2 months but thats it, it wasn't made to last years...only to attract new customers every couple of months and let them ride it out.
@AyeHaley TTK was great, though. Easily worth the money. And a brilliant deal if you'd not bought year 1 or its expansions. I'm not surprised people are tired of it by now though. It's been out a good few months and people are hammering it for hours per day. But a "trap" as you put it, it certainly isn't, unless you're buying it and expecting it to last for a full year or none stop, non repetitive gaming. But that's just silly.
Really hope they can breathe some new life into the game, it's up to Activision in the end I guess!
@kyleforrester87 Are you still playing Destiny mate? I never bought ttk in the end...
@AyeHaley your probably right, but lets be honest the games a hoot during those 2 months!!!
@kyleforrester87 The point of Destiny and the way it was sold was that it can offer something 'daily' and be playable all year round and to a degree it does. Its PvE offers a 'daily mission' and 'daily bounties', weekly reset on the Raid and weekly regular visits from Xur as well as the gunsmith Arms days too.
The problem is though that once you reach a certain level (300+) and have acquired a certain amount of gear, the game offers very little. The daily mission doesn't offer a challenge and the rewards are only useful IF you are looking to buy from a vendor or blueprint. The Nightfall rarely gives you any gear that is useful as the light level is too low - you can't infuse it into other gear and I doubt you want to keep it. Bounties become pointless too as everything is upgraded. Strikes also feel unrewarding when you have beaten them over and over again and the rewards are also way below your level. Unless you are at 320 light with all your gear at 320, then the Raid is the only content worth playing and that can be over in a few hours with all your characters.
PvP is playable all year round and it has a few events like Iron Banner and Trials of Osiris which offer the opportunity to gain new and sometimes worthwhile gear.
Yr1 Destiny though by this point had the Dark Below and of course that offered a lot of 'meaningful' content. I know it had its 'critics' as the story wasn't that great and similar to the original game and the Raid wasn't as deep as the VoG but it did offer a new set of Raid gear to acquire and level up, new strikes added to the playlist to add a bit more variety and the Nightfall in yr1 was a much more worthwhile and rewarding experience.
Since the Taken King came out, the additional content has been very poor and meaningless. OK it gives players something to do and I guess some new gear - whether that's masks (Halloween), or Sparrows and racing armour (SRL) and we don't yet know what the Valentines week will offer (although I expect it will be more meaningless trash). It doesn't build or reveal more of the lore, it doesn't reward you with things that are helpful in defeating enemies and to me feels like its cheap and tacky.
Maybe Bungie initially thought that people wouldn't play more than a few hours a week and I guess if you play that much, I doubt you will have exhausted the content. I would have thought though that they had learned from yr1 in that people were crying out for their DLC to drop and had these big lulls too. The Taken King in itself doesn't offer as much as 'Destiny' did and therefore needs expansions more. I guess these 'events' could help fill that gap between those 'expansions' but it seems we aren't getting any.
It could have helped fill this void in content if the yr1 Raids/PoE were actually relevant in yr2 too. A difficulty mode equivalent to the Kings Fall and maybe even updated to have a bit more random Taken involvement - like the Strikes. I know Bungie didn't want the weaponry to carry over but I think the Exotics should and maybe replace the legendary weapons with legendary+ Engrams. At the very least you can use theses to infuse or be infused. A weekly challenge like the Kings Fall has would be possible and help too. Instead of just having the KF raid once a week, players could have 3 additional activities/challenges too. Beat the KF on Tuesday, Arms day and VoG on Wednesday, CE on Thursday, Xur and Trials/IB over the weekend and PoE on Monday!
@themcnoisy Nah I stopped playing when I got Divinity, which was, what..start of October?
@BAMozzy I appreciate what you're saying and understand people might feel misled. Personally I didn't follow any of the prerelease hype/didn't play the beta and picked up Destiny on the off chance I might enjoy it. Turned out I did. I didn't expect it to last forever though. Same with Diablo, I dip in and out.
It does frustrate me when people crap on it without having even played it, since it's blatantly a good game and there's much worse ways you can spend £30.
@kyleforrester87 It frustrates me too. I know it isn't perfect and in many ways a very unique game (at least on console) but in terms of value for money - even though I spent £120 for all the content so far, It has provided me with thousands of hours making it by far the best 'cost per hour' game I have purchased. As much fun as other co-op experiences are, Raiding is by far the best co-op experience in my opinion (can be let down by the rewards LOL) as team-work, communication and co-ordination are vital to success and the feeling of satisfaction, delight etc at beating these is incredible - at least the first time...
@BAMozzy Yeah, clearly the game has inherent problems but people are vocal about it because it's so popular. Then you get the people who add to the noise by bashing on it when they havn't really given it half a chance. This happened with COD MW2, 3, Blops etc. as well.
There is definitely room for sensible discussion regarding improvements though.
The big decision Bungie need to make is the business model for future games. It was rumoured that originally it was to have a subscription but were worried that a console audience would be put off by it, which they were probably right (I wouldn't have got it for a start). The problem is when it's a full price game that adopts an MMO style content schedule it changes people's perception on value of content. Would Destiny have got the hate it gets if it adopted a F2P model from the beginning? Probably not.
Unfortunately that's one of the problems with the 'internet'. You are always going to get people who want nothing more than to start an argument - whether that's about a specific game or console, even with certain developers/publishers too.
It can't be easy for the developers to get constructive feedback, to sort out the trash talking from the sensible. It can't be easy to please everyone either as no-doubt even amongst the fans, there are differences of opinion on where the game should go, what changes need to be implemented and then balancing those 'changes' within the meta as a slight change could have a much wider impact.
CoD is a classic example of a game that regularly gets negative comments. If the comments are to be believed, the franchise is one of the worst looking games, completely unplayable, exactly the same as last years (despite having a totally different developer) and being too different that its not as good as another years at the same time and just clinging on to its existence and in some cases not even doing that. However it's generally the biggest selling game every year. In a world where games are criticised for the amount of content on disc and having it 'cut' for DLC and the price of Season Passes, CoD's on disc content, if anything has increased over the years and its Season Pass, one of the more expensive on the market, rarely gets criticised for its cost and content.
Even here Activision (responsible for CoD and Destiny) is being blamed. Activision though have never implemented online passes for example and appear to support its developers either financially or in other ways too. I know they got blamed for the break down of IW but they did sign a contract and part of that included that Activision owned the CoD licence - much the same way that MS owned Bungies Halo.
@adf86 I'd go subscription for Destiny but they'd really have to up the game with additional content.
@adf86 Had Destiny been F2P, I doubt it would have been anywhere near as popular and therefore probably not the same level of hate either. People also apply the rules of more traditional FPS games and apply it to destiny in terms of its 'content' and DLC. Rake the Dark Below for example which cost £20 but only offered 3-4 new missions, a strike or 2, a raid and 4 new MP Maps. Compared to most other FPS games that offer 4-5 MP maps for £12 it does sound like you are not getting a lot with Destiny. However unlike other FPS games, its PvE content is rarely played once and lets not forget that it added a lot more weapons and gear (not just Exotics) including the full set of raid gear too. I ended up playing that content for far more hours than the whole of the Witcher 3 (which I paid £40+ for) and never touched the additional PvP maps.
The problem with Subscription based games and F2P is that these can end up costing a LOT more than a AAA game and generally offer a poorer quality experience, with micro-transactions thrust into your face. Often they aren't as polished but people are more forgiving and have much lower expectation as they perceive the game to be 'cheaper' or even 'free'.
Been all downhill since partnering with Activision. Much like Bioware with EA. When will developers learn these companies are poison?
@BAMozzy Oh I agree, I waited till both expansions went down in price, same with TTK. That was always going to be a problem when you price it alongside CoD and Battlefield and those games have arguably better value DLC so it gets compared. It's why it's crucial that they decide what Destiny 2 is in terms of content and pricing and not change it during development.
@gamer83 Sadly it's those companies that have the money to make the developers create the kind of games they want to make. All they can do is choose well who they work with.
@adf86 It certainly does look 'poor' value if you don't understand the game and take it at face value. CoD and BF offer 4-5 Maps for £12 so looking at Destiny, £12 for 4 maps but that means that £8 is paying for the new story, strikes, raid and all the new gear. All this content is not like other 'campaign' based content, lasting a few hours or so and played maybe once or twice, No doubt requires more cost and development time than 'maps' as you have script writers, voice actors, animators etc etc. I know I played the raid a minimum of 3 times every week for weeks attempting to get all the gear (weapons/armour/ship/sparrow) as well as the long process needed to get Nechrochasm. The strikes and missions also added to the variety of daily/weekly end game content tooI know the 'Exotics' in general were disappointing in this bundle but I still endeavoured to collect them.
To me it showed a lack of understanding if people criticised the content and compared it with 'others'. Had the Dark Below been a MP map pack, charging £12 for its 4 maps (like every other FPS game) would it have been criticised? Paying an extra £8 (effectively) for on face value 5-6 additional content doesn't seem that unreasonable either. However if you understand what that 'content' added to the game - Eris in the tower, all the new gear (not just Raid but Vendor too) and the new quests/bounties, £20 isn't unreasonable (£17.50 if you bought the Season Pass)
@Gamer83 I don't think its been downhill for Bungie since partnering with Activision at all. The game is very different from 'Halo' in a lot of ways and I guess if you were expecting Destiny to be 'Halo 2.0) then you will be disappointed but I think Bungie would have made that game had they been at EA or other publisher. I don't know if MS would have allowed them to develop a new IP - especially one that has similarities to Halo (in that its a FPS with MP) and probably forced them to make Halo 4-5 and spin offs.
Just focussing in on the pure game-play mechanics, Destiny itself is a far more polished game. Its lore is as deep as Halo, albeit not so evident, but the 'campaign' of Halo is rarely played more than once or twice at the time of release. Its mission structure does not enable them to be used for end-game content and overall the SP content is a lot shallower as Destiny has more of an RPG structure, Overall Destiny is far more more ambitious and offers a lot more 'depth' in its game-play - although I do agree it lacks the depth of 'story' unless you want to go looking for it.
To criticise Activision, I think, is unfair. They invested a lot of money into a concept that as never really been tried on console before
It's still a good game and I'll still come back to it, they need to expand the locations and maps, just needs more campaign and they need to dump PS3 so we can see what they can really do.
Who cares! Im going to be playing the new Destiny tomorrow... The Division oh yeah! I just hope its not another let down like Destiny was.
@Grawlog
I think i agree with you. I feel like Activision had a hand in cutting the complete Destiny games into pieces to sell as DLC. I hope its not true, but the evidence show that many of these DLCs existed in the game before the dlc were even released. An example is, people finding dead ghost by glitching the map, finding different areas that is outside of the map.
@adf86
If they go with subscription base, i feel like early adopter of this game will be pissed off. If you think about early adopters spent nearly $180 dollars for this game and its DLCs. If they suddenly go to subscription base, early adopters will feel like they got screwed over.
Well,i haven't had any Destiny thus far..Do i want some more? no thanks.
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