Bungie’s latest update for Destiny 2 has come with a curious announcement.
We’re quoting Bungie directly below:
“Today, we are ready to share when our next big content update is coming. Destiny 2: Into the Light will launch on April 9 along with Update 7.3.6, which also includes further tuning to the sandbox and quality-of-life updates.
Destiny 2: Into the Light will deliver new game content, available for all players, throughout the months of April and May in preparation for the launch of The Final Shape in June. And what types of content, you might ask? Well, we will share more information about that very soon… “
Bungie has made it clear that Into the Light is a completely separate release from The Final Shape, but what is it? Well, it’s possible that this is part of the other content that Bungie announced would be coming before The Final Shape, namely, Season of the Wish.
So one way Bungie could have done this is that Into the Light is part 2 of the story they started telling with Season of the Wish. Alternately, this could be separate content, but content that is directly related to Season of the Wish, and perhaps something that ties up even more loose ends in preparation for what looks to be Destiny 2’s real finale, The Final Shape.
Whatever it is, it’s clear that Bungie is hoping that this surprise announcement is going to shock players enough to get them interested in playing again. Of course, we know that the studio has been going through incredible struggles through the past few months, that’s stretched out over the course of last year.
Those struggles did not just include layoffs, but power struggles within the company, a fight for control of Bungie between its shareholders and Sony, and a general sense that the studio has just run out of steam for their big live service title, and they simply have to end it now and move on.
In the middle of all these struggles, Bungie lost their core audience, and they know it. It matters far more for a live service title than for a traditional single player offline title, that gamers keep playing for the months, even years, that follow a game’s launch. They know firsthand that player numbers for Destiny 2 have dipped.
Bungie will also have to be mindful that they do not create new issues with bad decisions once again. Their most recent controversy was over selling a starter pack that simply did not provide the items that beginners actually needed to start playing, nor was it priced to customer’s satifaction.
One hopes that Bungie really has something with Destiny 2: Into the Light. We will be finding out in about a month.
