Bungie’s new leadership team of Studio Head Poria Torkan and Head of Product Josh Deane have talked in a new studio update, sharing a plan for how they hope to steer the company to a brighter future with both Destiny and Marathon continuing on.
That’s right, Destiny too.
The volume and continued enthusiasm that was shown for Destiny 2’s “final” update means that Bungie is now looking at how they can bring more to the game, even if new development isn’t underway.
“When we announced that Monuments of Triumph would be the final content update to Destiny 2, you responded in force. Your voices mattered, and the way you showed up made a real impact. You reminded everyone how much this world, its history, and its future still mean to you.”
They say that they want Destiny to return to its original promise, and while we don’t know if that means a Destiny 3 is currently being worked on in any fashion, what the duo can share is that they are beginning work to bring back the controversially vaulted content from Destiny 2. This means campaigns, destinations and raids.
“Bringing this content back is not as simple as restoring old files. Changes made to Destiny 2 since Beyond Light require us to update lighting, encounters, combatants, and other underlying systems. That work will take time, but it is necessary to ensure returning content meets the stability and gameplay standards of Destiny 2 today.”
And after that? Well, they can “reforge into new stories and games”.
The current concern, though, is Marathon, which “did not reach as many players as we had hoped.”
Last week, Bungie delayed the next major update to December, but in the long term, they play to “evolve it beyond the genre constraints we placed on it. We’re going to expand Marathon to a deeper survival experience, that gives players more ways to take on this dangerous alien world.”
This will include PvE, PvP and PvPvE, but with Marathon’s first year looking to bolster the game’s combat, world and competitive play. A further update on the game is expected later this week.
Finally, they outline four key commitments from the studio going forward:
- Build a stronger long-term future for Destiny, while honoring and restoring its past.
- Evolve Marathon to grow our community and build a sustainable future.
- Increase transparency around development priorities.
- Communicate more consistently, especially when plans change.
This is all positive to hear for the company after a year which has seen Marathon launch to underwhelming player counts, Destiny 2 development cancelled, and hundreds of employees let go. Restoring Destiny 2 means that the original Red War campaign, Forsaken campaign and more will return, and that’s great. Hopefully it can be a stepping stone to rebuild a Destiny team and take the beloved game and series forward. This will take a long time, though, and will require patience and buy in from Sony, just as continuing to develop and redirect Marathon will.
Source: Bungie
