There is a certain kind of bravado that happens within the gaming industry, and many of you can likely point to moments when you saw that bravado firsthand. It’s typically something that occurs when a developer goes and says something that “doesn’t seem like it’s true,” and thus, they’re saying it because they’re trying to seem “bigger than they are,” or trying to hype something up to get the buzz going, and so on. For Gearbox Software, they made a statement recently that called out all their competition, saying that only Gearbox has cracked the code of the looter-shooter genre, and that no one is willing to mimic them for one greed-based reason or another.
Given that it was Randy Pitchford who said that, you can understand why many thought it was bravado of the highest order. And yet, the proof all around us highlights that this isn’t the case at all. Instead, in this specific case, Randy’s statement about the competition is true, and we can prove it. You see, one of the biggest rivals to Gearbox Software within this genre is Bungie, which has made the Destiny franchise in recent years, which is a looter shooter.
In a comprehensive article made by The Game Post, they broke down how Bungie’s title isn’t just doing poorly, but it’s reached record lows that almost shut the game down in the past. For those who don’t play the game or don’t recall, Bungie has always had trouble with its looter-shooter. Whether it was the first game or the sequel, there have been issues with story, gameplay, and most importantly, keeping people invested.
According to the post numbers, they’re failing to keep players invested after completing a major in-game saga. The average player numbers across all platforms hover between 300K and 400K. On the surface, that’s actually not too bad, as many games would love those kinds of numbers every day. Except that Bungie needs those numbers to be much higher. Not to mention, at a previous point in time, when the numbers were close to dropping below 400K, a key member of Bungie said that the game was close to shutting down due to that count.
As such, it’s clear they’re not getting new players to help boost things, and that the new content they’re dropping isn’t keeping their diehard players invested. It’s hard to say what the future of this game and franchise is, but right now, it’s not looking good.
