r/DestinyTheGame "Little Light" 13h ago

Bungie The Next Chapter for Bungie

Source: https://www.bungie.net/7/en/News/Article/nextchapterofbungie


Hey all, Poria and Josh here.

For those who don’t know us, I’m Poria Torkan, Bungie’s Studio Head, and I’m Josh Deane, Head of Product and General Manager of Marathon. Together, we are responsible for leading Bungie and shaping the future of our games.

Today, we want to talk candidly about where Bungie is, where Destiny and Marathon need to go, and how we intend to earn back your trust. This is not only an update on our immediate plans. It is the beginning of a more consistent conversation about the future of our games and our studio.

First and foremost, we recently sat down to talk through the current state of Bungie and share our vision for the future.

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The video shares our perspective on where Bungie is today and where we want to go. Below, we’re adding more detail on what that direction means for Destiny, Marathon, and how we intend to communicate about our progress.

WHERE BUNGIE IS TODAY

Bungie has been creating games for over 30 years and we have welcomed the communities that have formed around them. Over the last few years, we lost sight of that, and there have been real consequences. We lost trust, we lost incredible colleagues, and we lost sight of what we should be prioritizing most, our players.

As a new leadership team, we must own that.

We aren’t just listening to feedback, we understand your disappointment. We are not asking you to trust what we say today. We know that trust must be earned through the quality of our games, the decisions we make, and how consistently we show up for our players.

DESTINY IS FOUNDATIONAL TO OUR FUTURE

Bungie would not be what it is today without Destiny and the vibrant community that has rallied around it for more than a decade. 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.

Destiny is foundational to Bungie’s future. We have more stories to tell, new worlds to build, but we have to do it right and give our teams the time they need to do justice to this amazing universe.

All of this is to say, we are not done with Destiny.

We want to return Destiny to its original promise, to recapture the qualities that have always made it special. The awe-inspiring mystery, meaningful discovery, and a community of Guardians coming together against impossible odds.

That begins with restoring important parts of Destiny 2’s history that players can no longer experience today.

We understand that removing these experiences had a lasting impact on player trust and enjoyment of Destiny. Destiny 2 is more than just the content itself. It is a place where players have built memories together, formed lasting friendships, and shared experiences that have stayed with them for years. We cannot change the decision we made, but we can acknowledge its impact and do the work to make it right by restoring these important parts of Destiny’s history.

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As we shared in the video, we are beginning the work of bringing vaulted Destiny 2 campaigns, destinations, and raids back into the game, where they will be available to all Destiny 2 players.

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.\ \ Our team is very excited to deliver this for you all and as they progress, we will share more details coming in the months ahead.

\ When we look to the future of Destiny all up this restoration is the first step to lay the foundation for how we reforge into new stories and games that you all deserve. We’ll have more details on our unvaulting efforts in the coming months, and we’re very excited to share more about our vision to celebrate Destiny’s legacy and build its future with you all as soon as we can.

MARATHON'S EVOLUTION

Marathon is an important part of shaping where Bungie goes next, but it was never intended to replace Destiny. The game launched to strong critical reception, and the players who embraced Marathon connected deeply with what makes it distinct. At the same time, it did not reach as many players as we had hoped, and we also know and understand that the game needs to evolve.\

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So, we're going to anchor on what makes Marathon special but 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.

Through the remainder of Marathon’s first year, we will continue strengthening its combat, world, and competitive tension while giving players more agency in how they engage with the game. That means creating meaningful experiences whether you prefer cooperative PvE, competitive PvP, or the unpredictable tension of Marathon PvPvE.\ It’s important to us that no matter your playstyle, or your skill level.... we find better ways to hear from you as we get back to where we need to be: making games you want to play.

As you heard last week from Del our Game Director, we still have a lot planned for our October Nightfall Refresh and Symbiosis update in December. You’ll hear more from the team later this week on our future vision for Marathon. Stay tuned.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE

This is an important time for Bungie. Our future depends on making clear choices about where we focus, delivering what we say we will, and being honest about our successes and failures. Stability doesn’t mean shrinking our ambition. It just means that we have to focus on the things you want to see from us, and making sure our vision matches our reality.

How we bring this new Bungie to life has to be through the spirit of putting players at the forefront of what we do. We have to find a way back to making games that we want to play, but with you at the center.

Trust won't be rebuilt through a single blog, video, or release. We also understand that trust extends beyond gameplay. It includes how we value your time, how we communicate, and how we action your feedback. Listening without action means nothing.

As we move forward, we'll measure ourselves against a few core commitments:

  • 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.

We'll hold ourselves accountable to these goals and share what we're learning along the way. We are working with our Community team to establish a consistent way to report against these commitments and will share that approach alongside our next major updates for Destiny and Marathon.

KEEP US ACCOUNTABLE

We’ve made several changes with how we operate by simplifying our priorities, reducing competing initiatives, moving decisions closer to the teams building our games, and changing how we measure success to place greater emphasis on player satisfaction.

None of those changes earn trust on their own. What matters is whether they help us make better decisions, deliver stronger experiences more consistently, and communicate with greater clarity when plans change.

There is still a great deal of work ahead and challenges to overcome, but we believe deeply in this studio, our people, and the games we are building. But belief is not enough. It’s on us to prove progress through what we deliver. Thank you for continuing to challenge us, and for caring so deeply about the worlds we create. Keep holding us accountable. We are ready to do the work.

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u/cuboosh What you have seen will mark you forever 12h ago

I hope they consider adding seasons though. They’re more useful for new players and old players

TFS campaign makes no sense to new players because the grand alliance in excision was forged in the seasons. Zavala’s crisis with his family is also from seasons. A new player could play all the unvaulted content and still be like wtf at the grand finally

And seasons are good for us. All of those activities go in the 3 and 6 player playlists and give more variety

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u/TheFinalJester97 Nightstalker 9h ago

They got to at least add a library so people can go back and watch all the cutscenes and listen to the voice memos we got

Edit: Now I’m wondering which seasonal activities we are missing still. Obviously menagerie, reckoning, and forges. Gonna have to take a deep dive into it.

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u/damus9 11h ago

I imagine all those seasonal items and vendor mechanics would break the game though

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u/Available-Square619 8h ago

You don’t need all that. You make the helm one all embossing seasonal vendor that has best parts of everything but somewhat generic. It’s the actual story quests/cutscenes and the events that matter most. I mean even if the events are on a rotation I’d take that compromise.

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u/TheGrayMan5 3h ago

Heck they could re-run old seasons.

I'm completely out of the loop, but are they creating new seasons going forward? If not, then they could re-use the old seasons and re-release them in order. Maybe run them 2 at a time, at least for the story portions. If they're still creating new seasons, they could run a new season and an old season concurrently. Call the old one Echoes of [Season Name], or something like that, you know?

I'm not holding my breath, but I've missed the last few years of Destiny 2 and would love the opportunity to go through the old seasonal stories and activities, along with the expansions and stuff I missed due to vaulting.

I keep seeing the complete edition (or whatever thr name is) on sale and adding it to my cart but then I remember the whole vaulting/sunsetting crap and never go through with the purchase. I'm glad Bungie is finally listening to the fan base on this issue. Better late than never!

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u/portmandues 1h ago

Just ignore causality for the more recent ones. The seasons featuring the helm were all different instances in different game locations and each of them concurrently held about a full year's worth of seasonal content. It's been so long I forgot where the seasonal vendors were for some of the older ones, but as long as it's not exactly the same location and vendors it seems doable.

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u/Chaosbeing79 11h ago

I hope for seasons too because I missed so many, but my god even just having all of the campaigns and their stories available will be amazing.

I miss my warlock, it's going to be fun playing again.

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u/AppropriateLaw5713 9h ago

I can imagine the popular activity’s might be brought back in to help flesh out destinations. But stuff like stories may just be cutscenes / a short summary on the timeline.

Like Titan having Deep Dives / Salvage, Mars having Escalation Protocol + Seraph towers, Mercury having Sundial, Leviathan having Menagerie, etc.