Destiny 2

[Robber Baron]

looks like Bungie will be trimmed down from Destiny studio to Marathon studio

 

[Perkel]

looks like Bungie will be trimmed down from Destiny studio to Marathon studio

More like in general Sony cuts down fat before financial crisis hits. Ton of companies are doing it RN. All of their teams fired ton of devs.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

They're not cutting down fat, they're slashing off bits of flesh with a cleaver.

https://www.nme.com/news/gaming-new...atori-apparently-laid-off-from-bungie-3526667

‘Halo’ and ‘Destiny’ composer Michael Salvatori apparently laid off from Bungie​

“Events over the last few days lead us to believe that PlayStation is undergoing a restructuring”
By
Imogen Donovan
31st October 2023


Michael Salvatori, the co-composer of a number of the Halo games, Destiny and Destiny 2, appears to have been hit in the wave of layoffs announced at Bungie.

“Today is a sad day at Bungie as we say goodbye to colleagues who have all made a significant impact on our studio,” said CEO Pete Parsons in a post to X on October 30.

“What these exceptional individuals have contributed to our games and Bungie culture has been enormous and will continue to be a part of Bungie long into the future.

“These are truly talented people. If you have openings, I would highly recommend each and every one of them,” he concluded.
Bloomberg‘s report on the losses alleged that Bungie has not disclosed the number or extent of the people who have been let go.
However, fans saw that a change to Salvatori’s official website seemed to suggest that he is one of those affected in these shakeups.
All that it says on the home page for the official website is that Salvatori has “gone fishin’ ”. While this is not an outright declaration, the meaning of the idiom is that the person has availed themselves of their routine responsibilities in their life.

As well as working on Halo with collaborator Martin O’Donnell, Salvatori produced the soundtrack to Myth: The Fallen Lords, Myth 2: Soulblighter, Septerra Core, Oni, Stubbs The Zombie and more.

Fans have expressed their sympathies to Salvatori if he has been laid off by Bungie and their admiration for his contributions to their favourite games.

Analyst Doug Creutz, who works for TD Cowen, told investors that “events over the last few days lead us to believe that PlayStation is undergoing a restructuring.” Sony bought Bungie in 2022 and spent $1.2billion (£980,000) on staff retention in incentives to remain with the Destiny developer.

In other gaming news, Todd Howard has been said to be the “last say guy” for every game that Bethesda has recently released: “[he’s] somebody that has opinions and whose opinions are highly valuable”.

 

[frajaq]

more details:

* 100 people laid off, around 8% of staff
* Missing revenue targets by 45%
* Weak player retention after Lightfall
* Final Shape getting "good not great" feedback, delayed for improvement
* Some cut roles are getting outsourced
* "The layoffs are part of a larger money-saving initiative at Sony’s PlayStation unit, which has also cut employees at studios such as Naughty Dog, Media Molecule and its San Mateo office."

 

[ADL]

Sucks all those people are losing their million dollar bonus for sticking around after the Sony buyout because management decided to split Lightfall into two games unneccessarily but I'm glad the playerbase finally out their money where their mouths were and stopped buying and playing this shitty seasonal model.

If they're gonna do two years of episodes before another expansion, The Final Shape needs to be The Taken King/Rise of Iron/Forsaken-tier after Nimbus and friends killed almost everyone's interest.

 

[lycanwarrior]

 

[ADL]

Matter the third person "whimsical, comedic, and lighthearted" third person shooter was cancelled in December 2020. Thank fuck if Nimbus' characterization was any indicator of the direction they were going to take with that. I don't want 'comedy' in video games until the hacks infesting writers rooms that grew up worshiping Joss Whedon retire.

 

[Cheesedragon117]

New video from Joe Blackburn concerning the new expansion release date, and the immediate future of the game up to The Final Shape:


To say this man has his work cut out for him saving this dumpster fire of a game would be an understatement. The fact that the balance team still can't cool it with the random, brutal, and frankly unnecessary ability nerfs despite the position they're in is rather telling of their mindset, or more likely, a lack of coordination between the different moving parts of the studio. Are these the random neural mis-firings of a dying brain? Or do they really think they can redeem themselves and win back the crowd after this?

 

[ADL]

I don't think Bungie has the luxury of not recovering or winding down the franchise. They need to recover it because it's paying for the development of everything else they do. Marathon is never going to be as profitable as the Destiny franchise because PvP extraction shooters are much less popular than cooperative looter shooters. They're also working on "Gumdrop" some sort of MOBA.

Crazy how negative Destiny's community has gotten about the game since Lightfall dropped in February. Lightfall was mediocre, especially compared to Witch Queen, sure but this has been a long time coming. Bad and confusing monetizaiton, lackluster content output, abandoning entire segments of the community and pandering exclusively to the people who treat the game like a second job. If and when Bungie decides to get their shit together, they should look at games like Warframe, Path of Exile and The Division and see what they're doing right because their communities seem to be pretty happy.

 

[lycanwarrior]

Bungie Devs Say Atmosphere Is ‘Soul-Crushing’ Amid Layoffs, Cuts, and Fear of Total Sony Takeover​

https://www.ign.com/articles/bungie...-layoffs-cuts-and-fear-of-total-sony-takeover

The Destiny 2 and Marathon developer may not be able to cling to the last of its independence forever.​

 

[lycanwarrior]

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

and nothing of value was lost.

 

[Ranselknulf]

Whats the codex consensus on this game?

Looking for my next thing to try out and I haven't bothered downloading it yet.

Lots of people complaining on steam about season passes breaking things. What is this game similar to in terms of playstyle and end game?

Or is this a sinking ship and best avoided.

 

[ADL]

Right now I would definitely not recommend it unless you want to just play through the campaigns and drop it for half a year until The Final Shape comes out. Lightfall was the straw that broke the camel's back for a lot of people because Bungie created a filler expansion when originally it was going to take The Final Shape's place.

It's a loot game in the context of a shooter. There's some intense theorycrafting involved in the endgame and the dungeons and raids are incredible. It's not a bad buy but there's other games to play instead. Go play Path of Exile/Warframe/The Division 1+2 for your skinner box dopamine instead and wait for a consensus to develop around The Final Shape.

Or is this a sinking ship and best avoided.

No one knows for sure. Bungie has recovered from worse... But it's frustrating that we're still talking about the game 'recovering' after ten fucking years.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Plays like Halo with Borderlands abilities. After an expansion drops, most of the old seasonal content attached to the previous expansion is removed. You can usually get the old gear somewhere else or it's replaced by updated versions. The removed parts includes dialogue, cutscenes, areas and activities unless those last two added to the permanent playlists - the seasonal "battlegrounds" activities were added to the PvE playlist but this still causes butthurt anyway because there are players who don't like the high enemy density with unskippable encounters, so you can't speedrun past everything. Be careful with what you wish for, I guess.

The free-to-play portion is limited but has a bit of everything.

https://www.ign.com/articles/destiny-2-free-to-play-guide

If you feel like buying anything at this point, it's this one. It gives you Bungie Bucks Silver so you can go into the in-game store and buy the current season, with the most played content. It lasts until june 2024.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2218002/Destiny_2_Season_of_the_Wish_Silver_Bundle/

 

[ADL]

Looking for my next thing to try out and I haven't bothered downloading it yet.

It's your lucky day if you're willing to play it on the Epic Games Store lol
https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/destiny-2--legacy-collection-2023

 

[Cheesedragon117]

I say wait for the Sony takeover. I'm significantly more hype for that eventuality than The Final Shit. It CANNOT happen soon enough.

 

[Forest Dweller]

Free on Epic right now. Can I get anything out of this as a strictly solo game?

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Depends on your tolerance.

If you're fine with just not being able to do raids and harder versions of missions that normally have matchmaking, yes.

If you absolutely can't stand seeing other players, even in easier missions where they might as well be friendly NPCs, no. (hardly anyone uses the text chat because it's opt-in and the average player never touches the Options screen)

 

[ADL]

https://www.humblebundle.com/games/destiny-2-the-story-so-far
I won't say much good about the state of Destiny 2 right now but this is a solid deal even if you only play through the campaigns, strikes and dungeons.

 

[Modron]

Don't they routinely remove old missions and storylines?

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Kind of. Seasonal storylines can't be played once that batch of seasons is over, when a new expansion is released. For example, Witch Queen expansion has 4 seasons, one of which was season of the Seraph that ran from december 2022 to february 2023. You can't play through that storyline anymore (meaning dialogue outside of missions and having access to the seasonal vendor NPC), but the missions became part of the mission playlist. You won't play them in order and you'll have to settle for the in-mission dialogue for context, but it's playable.

With the above pack you get access to Lightfall's seasonal content (Defiance, released alongside Lightfall in february 2023, then season of the Deep, Witch and Wish, the current season released in november 2023) until Final Shape releases around June 2024. Those can be played as normal.

Shadowkeep, Beyond Light and Witch Queen's seasons aren't available. Forsaken is a special case since not only its seasons are unavailable but a location required for the campaign was removed, making it unavailable, which is why it's called "Forsaken Pack".

https://help.bungie.net/hc/en-us/articles/360049202531-Destiny-2-Forsaken-Pack-Guide

https://www.destinypedia.com/Destiny_(franchise)

TL;DR that is indeed a lot of content for $40-45, but there are caveats. Anyone unsure might as well wait for Final Shape.

 

[frajaq]

I just wanted them to make something as good as Witch Queen again... Lightfall sucked so much...

 

[lycanwarrior]

Bungie Replaces Marathon Director Amid Leadership Shakeup, Fears of Layoffs

https://www.ign.com/articles/bungie...s-barrett-as-game-director?utm_source=threads

Within the company, there is a growing expectation that senior company leadership will leave in droves in the summer of 2026 when the final payouts from Sony's acquisition of the company take effect.

 

[ADL]

It's quite impressive how much goodwill they've pissed away in the last year or so alone. For many, Lightfall was simply the straw that broke the camel's back rather than Lightfall being egregiously bad but there is zero hype from anyone anywhere for their final major expansion that concludes their ten year arc.

I don't know where they go from here but putting Destiny in maintenance mode in favor of a hero extraction shooter doesn't seem like the best idea. Continuing Destiny without significant overhauls doesn't seem viable either. I'm just glad Matter got cancelled.