Destiny: Bungie on the Lack of Matchmaking and Why There Are Three Player Fireteams

Bungie has spoken to Eurogamer about the three player fireteams in Destiny, the game's lack of matchmaking, and the scale of the game.

Many were surprised to learn that Destiny will not allow for matchmaking for multiplayer missions but director of production Jonty Barnes explained the decision, saying it all comes down to player commitment and that Bungie has designed raids in such a way that you will need to play with a full team of six. 

"We intentionally did that. We're going to see people self-organise. We're seeing people in the Tower already gathering saying, who's going to commit for a raid? 

"It is about that commitment part. If you just casually matchmake… you can see people jump out of competitive multiplayer games in matchmaking. In Strikes you can continue with two if somebody jumps out. You can still have that experience and not feel robbed. A raid requires six. If you've got five players in the raid, you're not going to win. You're not going to get through. I can tell you now, it's really tough, and it's intentionally meant to be that way. We've all got roles to play. So it requires a commitment of six people. That was very intentional."

Discussing the three player fireteams, Barnes said that Bungie had looked at its metrics for past game and found that "three was a sweeter spot than four". He also said that while it's usually relatively easy to find one or two friends to play, adding another is often harder than you might imagine. 

The developer also discussed the scale of game saying he was "surprised" that some players believed the game would be relatively small given what we had access to in the beta. Echoing the comments made recently by Bungie community manager DeeJ who said that we haven't even seen all of Old Russia let alone the Moon, Mars, or Venus. 

Barnes confirmed that Mercury will also feature in the game as a multiplayer map and it's possible that the campaign could ultimately visit the planet as well. Other potential locations into which Destiny could expand include Old Chicago, for which the developer has produced concept art, but whether or not this happens has still to be decided. 

He also noted that Bungie sped up access to some areas and weapons for the beta to give players a good idea of what's on offer in the various modes. Destiny has a soft level cap of 20 but using motes of light it's possible to reach level 30 and Barnes remarked that once a player hits that level, "You'll find you become a more complete Guardian. Rather than this race for vertical power, it becomes breadth as well."

Destiny launches on September 9th for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.