Former Bungie lawyer says Sony "inflicting some discipline" may have forced the Destiny 2 studio to "get their heads out of their asses" as the MMO commits to a different kind of roadmap

News
By published

Destiny 2 says goodbye to annual expansions and hello to 2 "medium-sized" expansions plus 4 free updates a year

Destiny 2 roadmap and Frontiers teasers
(Image credit: Bungie)

Bungie's recently revealed plans to change how Destiny 2 handles content drops has won some endorsement from the studio's former general counsel. While legal expert Don McGowan admits it "pains" him to say it, he muses on LinkedIn that "it appears that Sony’s inflicting some discipline on my former colleagues may have forced them to fix the things that were wrong with their game."

"To be clear: I'm not talking about the layoffs," he says (thanks, The GamePost). "I'm talking about forcing them to get their heads out of their asses and focus on things like: implementing a method of new player acquisition; not just doing fan service for the fans in the Bungie C-suite; and running the game like a business. Good. I still have friends in that environment and I'd like them to keep jobs."

Last week, Bungie announced that The Final Shape would essentially end the MMO's content model of annual expansions and 'Episodes.' Now, the MMO will get two "medium-sized" expansions and four free updates a year. All of this will kick off good and proper next year, at which point we'll get a better of idea of what this all looks like. Though, as for the why, Bungie admits Destiny 2 has "become too rigid" – expansions are starting to feel "too formulaic" and offer "little replay value."

"We've loved creating annual Expansions and are especially proud of The Final Shape," game director Tyson Green said. "But the truth is that they dominate almost all our development effort. We need to free ourselves up to explore and innovate with how we deliver Destiny 2 content so we can invest in areas of the game that will feel more impactful to players."

Destiny 2 is experimenting with Metroidvania and roguelike DNA as Bungie admits "Destiny is too complex" and "you practically need a PhD to decide what to play."

Iain Harris
Iain Harris
News Editor, Games

I joined GamesRadar+ in May 2022 following stints at PCGamesN and PocketGamer.Biz, with some freelance for Kotaku UK, RockPaperShotgun, and VG24/7 thrown in for good measure. When I'm not running the news team on the games side, you'll find me putting News Editor duties to one side to play the hottest JRPG of 20 years ago or pillaging the depths of Final Fantasy 14 for a swanky new cloak – the more colourful, the better.