If you’ve been paying attention to chats during any live gaming event this year, especially Sony’s State of Plays, you’ll notice a term being spammed continuously – and no, it’s not “no disc, no buy”; it’s actually “we want Destiny 3”.

Since Bungie’s announcement to axe continued support for Destiny 2, many fans, including myself, were baffled that the Destiny franchise had no clear future. In fact, it seemed like it was actually the end of Destiny, considering Bungie itself posted a memorandum-style compilation of our journey over the years.

Truth be told, it’s been a rough year for Bungie fans. On top of Destiny’s seeming demise, the company was effectively halved through brutal redundancies, and its only supported game, Marathon, became the community's proverbial punching bag. With a sea of studio closures, I feared the worst.

However, after months of spamming "we want Destiny 3" across streams, social media, YouTube comments, Reddit, and Discord forums, it seems that Bungie has actually taken notice. In a rather candid video, studio lead Porio Torkan and head of product Josh Deane laid out a rather simple message: “We are not done with Destiny."

This five-minute video, along with an accompanying post on the Bungie blog, details a bunch of plans that fans have been hoping and praying for. No, we didn't get that Destiny 3 announcement per se, but Bungie is now claiming that Destiny is “foundational” to the company’s future.

It's a far cry from its attitude just a few months ago, and you can't help but feel like it's one of the few times an online gaming campaign has actually worked. Even better is if you peep Bungie’s LinkedIn, it now states:

Today, Bungie is focused on developing the next highly anticipated release in the Destiny universe and new worlds to come.

So yeah, more Destiny is coming, which I’m elated to hear. As I explained a few months ago, Destiny 2 deserved more than the end it got. Some of my fondest gaming memories are nestled in this big, messy sci-fi universe, so I’m delighted that it’s continuing with (presumably) the fresh start that it needs.

That being said, whatever form the next entry takes, it’s likely still some time away. So that leaves us with the here and now: how does Bungie repair trust with its players today?

That all starts by restoring Destiny 2. Long marred by its decision to vault content, including the opening campaign to Destiny 2, Bungie is finally bringing back content.

It’s a bit of a meme these days that Destiny 2 is impenetrable for new players, but a lot of that is down to the removal of campaigns and locations. It has meant for years now that jumping into Destiny 2 today is kind of like starting a TV show midway through its 13th season.

How it is implementing old content is yet to be seen, as previous statements from Bungie have outlined that it’s not as simple as flipping a switch. The game has been updated time and time again, so by modern Destiny standards, old content needs some improvement.

So what does this all mean to a lapsed Destiny player like myself? Well, for one, I’m excited to hear that Destiny 2 isn’t being abandoned as it seemingly was back in May. There was a time that Destiny was a pillar franchise in the live service space, and it felt like Bungie just gave up on that.

I’m also quite excited to potentially revisit some of that old content, like the Forsaken campaign or maybe even the location of Mars in its entirety.

However, there is a lot of work to be done to repair Bungie’s damaged reputation. What kind of vaulted content will it bring back? How will it be delivered? What does the new cadence of content look like? And how do you then mould years of content into a cohesive experience that actually makes sense — and doesn't destroy your SSD storage?

However, at the end of the day, it's not new content — at least not for now — so how does that translate into a healthy game that attracts new players? And, more than anything, it raises a huge question for me: how does this keep Bungie alive while we wait on the next instalment?

As stated at the beginning of this article, I’ve been worried that Bungie has been on the brink of closure, and while bringing back vaulted content is definitely a step in the right direction, does it actually bring back players in a meaningful way? I do believe that whenever the next Destiny game drops, it will be huge, but Bungie has to last long enough to release it.

You also have to wonder about Sony in all of this. Is this Sony doubling down on its $3.6 billion investment? While fan sentiment towards Bungie is certainly low, Sony shutting down another developer, especially after the news of cancelling Hideo Kojima's Physint, could be tossed in the terrible PR pile that the Japanese giant has been amassing.

Then there is Marathon. It’s no secret that I love Marathon’s gorgeous, bold, and brutal take on the extraction genre. However, the game has clearly been a sales flop in the eyes of Bungie (and Sony), and has undisputedly played a part in the company’s redundancies. Bungie even recently moved away from its strict seasonal update cadence, which prompted many to question the game’s future.

Regardless, this new update claims that Bungie is looking for ways to expand Marathon “beyond the genre constraints” it placed it in. Really, that just translates to more PvE, which Bungie has already been experimenting with in the Vault Breakers mode. We’ll find out more soon, but personally, I’m glad to hear the game isn’t dead yet.

But I have to ask: would we be seeing the same Destiny resurgence from Bungie had Marathon been a hit? I'm not sure that we would, and with that, the announcement does have a pang of desperation about it. Bungie turned its back on its most loyal Destiny fans, and now, in many ways, it's turning back to them, begging for forgiveness.

Overall, though, many in the Destiny community seem to be happy with this move from Bungie. It’s not a forget-all apology, but it is a nice change for the company to address its issues and actually encourage its fans to hold it accountable.

So, undeniably, this is a pivotal time for Bungie. Its fans have made it clear that they aren't happy with the way things are going, and hopefully that has given the developer the kick up its arse that it needed. Bungie has a mountain to climb, but it's time for it to put money where its mouth is.

However, it's nice to just take a moment to consider that maybe (just maybe) the fans have brought a franchise back from the dead.

What do you think about the Bungie announcement? Does it make you hopeful for the future, or is it too little, too late? Let me know down in the comments below.