Some new rumors have appeared about Bungie’s plans for Destiny 2 that would have clearly made the game worse.
Destin Legarie made a YouTube video sharing what he was told by Bungie’s former employees. While these employees mostly talked about trouble within the company, he had sources with specific claims about Destiny 2.
According to one source, Bungie management made decisions that “prioritized monetization over player experience.” For example, they almost blocked Expanded Trial Accessory Glows to protect Eververse sales. For those who don’t play Destiny 2, we’ll explain below.
Trials of Osiris is a 3v3 gametype variant of Destiny 2’s Crucible mode. Bungie put in heavy work to build a reward system for playing Trials of Osiris, including accessories like unique armor and weapons.
The armor and weapon glows are tied to win streaks, starting from four consecutive wins. Once you earn a glow it can last for as long as two weeks. It’s a physical manifestation of player achievements that functions as a great reward, that players had to earn instead of buying it.
Eververse, on the other hand, Destiny 2’s in-game market, which allows you to buy items in exchange for real money. So, Bungie was thinking that their own players could enjoy Trials of Osiris so much that they would stop spending, and they wanted to stop that.
But that’s not all, because Bungie wants to switch Destiny 2 to a subscription model. Given how popular the game was once, we can see that this could have been a success for them, but to quote Destiny, it was “vehemently shut down by staff.”
As another one of Legarie’s sources said,
Internal language shifted from ‘studio’ ‘games’ and ‘players’ to ‘company’ ‘product’ and ‘customers’ During the Sony Acquisition.
But then, another source summed it up quite succinctly:
Everything happening to Bungie is because of greed.
We’re sure those of you reading this don’t want to relitigate all the rumors and publicly visible actions Bungie took that brought them to where they are today. As we reported, this is more than vibes, as Destiny 2 has clearly lost most of their players from June 2024 compared to the start of this year.
With the controversy now surrounding Marathon, it’s hard to see Bungie continuing to keep going the way they are now. And maybe that’s exactly what needs to happen, but whatever action Bungie and Sony takes, we hope their hardworking developers who were only trying to make the best games they can will be protected.
