Per Audacia Ad Astra
Bungie Software Products Corporation, as it was known in the 90’s, had early success with a few Macintosh games that are still celebrated to this day. Marathon and Myth were their blockbusters, along with Oni later on. In 1999, they began development on a title known as Halo: Combat Evolved, also available for the Mac. Bungie showcased the title on stage during the 1999 Macworld Expo keynote address. However, it seemed the demonstration may have caught some envious eyes.
In June of 2000, Microsoft announced their acquisition of Bungie, and the Halo project changed course to become an exclusive launch title for the then upcoming Xbox, Microsoft’s first home console. Halo went on to become a massive success for Microsoft, and many believe it to be the reason the Xbox succeeded at all. I can tell you hands down it is the reason I owned one. Bungie even pioneered console matchmaking with Halo 2, making it even easier to jump into competitive matches. The combat was fun, the lore was interesting, and the music took the game to a whole new cinematic level. They were epic games.
Everything was going well, but Bungie quickly realized that they had the potential to do more. The ambition that paved their success thus far was quickly rearing its head again. They knew that they could never have complete control of their future if they stayed with Microsoft. The creators had bigger ideas. Online play had become commonplace, and they wanted to do more with it than be Microsoft’s Halo machine for the rest of time.
Pathways out of Darkness
In 2007, Bungie announced that it was starting the process of separating from Microsoft to become a privately owned company called Bungie, LLC. Part of the deal included the development of a final Halo game and the relinquishment of the Halo intellectual property to Microsoft. Bungie immediately began early-stage development on their next big franchise while also developing their final Halo game, Halo: Reach. Microsoft then passed on the Halo work to an in-house studio, 343 Industries.
Bungie struck a 10-year publishing deal with Activision-Blizzard for their next franchise. Details of the agreement were made public during a lawsuit between Bungie and their former long-time composer Martin O’Donnel. The contract outlined 4 games to be released every 2 years, with major expansions released in the odd years.
The new project started out as a fantasy game. Bungie aimed to change their visual style and exercise other creative muscles. They would create a new world with epic castles and dark, mysterious creatures. The shadow of what that game would have been is encapsulated in the early concept work.
Alas, the call to the stars proved too great. They shifted back into a wold of science fiction, but decided to retain elements of the fantasy universe they started exploring. The result was a visual theme Bungie refers to as “Mythic Sci-fi”, and which is what gave Destiny such a distinct look.
Project Tiger
Bungie set their sights on the stars with Destiny, internally referred to as Project: Tiger. They aimed to create something that we had never seen before. Described as a “Shared World Shooter”, it dared to combine the fast-paced action shooter mechanics of Halo, but encase it in the systems of an MMORPG like World of Warcraft. Bungie banked on their ability to “invent fun” as Game Director Luke Smith had said at one point. Halo was revered for its seemingly endless replay quality.
They focused on giving the player “hero moments” where you feel god-like in isolated moments of your gameplay. String enough of those moments together, and you have a fun and addicting experience. With Destiny, Bungie used that as their basis, and added to the incentive with a loot-based progression system. This meant that you were always chasing better gear to outfit your Guardian. With a cheeky weapon names like “Super Good Advice”, or “Bad Juju”, Bungie managed to keep players in the game, chasing the coveted top-tier quality of weapons and armor know as “exotics”.
Bungie also aimed to create an always online, dynamic, ever-changing world. One where you can log into and experience something new on an almost daily or weekly basis. They aimed to deliver a fresh world, filled with interesting stories to experience, and epic adventures to journey on. Unfortunately, this is where things fell apart.
Our Own Worst enemy
Destiny had a troubled development. Joseph Staten, long-time creative director of Halo and the majority of Destiny‘s development, created a vast world, complete with a full cinematic campaign that is rumored to have rivaled Halo. However, in summer of 2013 a “supercut” of the campaign and its cinematic were shown to Bungie’s leadership, who did not like the direction the story and campaign structure had taken. It is rumored that they believed it was too similar to Halo in look and feel. They also deemed it too linear in a game that was meant to be an open activity sandbox adventure. Whatever the reason was, Bungie leadership decided to scrap the campaign in its last year of development and start over. This meant a new story, reworked characters, rewritten dialogue, and destinations like The Dreadnaught, (which eventually showed up in The Taken King expansion,) were scrapped from the base game. Joseph Staten left the company due to creative conflicts, and Game Director Luke Smith was moved up to recreate the campaign.
The game was originally slated for a fall 2013 release. With little time and resources left, Bungie pushed back the release to fall of 2014. The game we got at its launch was created in 1 year, and it was all too obvious. The release was met with mixed reception. While the gameplay and investments systems were solid, the story was very lacking. Destiny was heavily criticized for being a shell of the game that was promised. The game was also criticized for lacking an interesting variety of post-campaign content to keep players interested in the long term. The worlds were awe-inspired, the gameplay addicting and fun, and the music incredible. This was an obvious result of 7 years of hard work by the respective teams. However, the world felt hollow. The incredible destinations were empty. Destiny was a vast ocean that was mile wide, but and inch deep.
This is what led most players to believe that Bungie was holding back content for post-release DLC, which was sold in the form of an Expansion pass. The pass sold for $35 and included the 2 story expansions; The Dark Below and The House of Wolves. As we’ve come to discover through various sources over the past few years, Bungie wasn’t holding things back. The Dark Below began development 2 months before launch, and The House of Wolves didn’t begin development until the start of 2015. The product we got at launch was all they could complete before the new fall 2014 launch date, as a result of having to essentially start over. The problem came with communication.
All of the information here is a result of information gathered from leaks and anonymous sources from the past 4 years. Bungie didn’t communicate why things were the way they were, or what had even happened. They just hoped that they could keep their internal issues internal, and maybe no one would notice (we noticed). When the Expansions arrived, Bungie was accused of being greedy, and not delivering a complete game on purpose to sell us the rest later for more money. Sadly no damage control was done, and the narrative spiraled.
The Taken Savior
The Taken King was released 12 months after the launch of the game and was wildly credited with saving Destiny. Sporting a $40 price tag, and labeled by Bungie as a “major expansion”, it featured an epic campaign, complete with a cohesive story and a proper big bad, Oryx. The expansion brought many of the world’s characters together, and for the first time introduced measurable, tangible stakes. It gave context and purpose to the world.
Perhaps the most notable change was the “questification” of the entire game. The campaign was retrofitted into several main campaign quests, and many more were added. This provided players with multiple driven pursuits, not to mention, made the most of the content added. Some other improvements included additional weekly activities, an overhaul to the economy and the weapons progression systems called “infusion”. This feature allowed you to infuse your weapons with the power of a higher level weapon, allowing you to keep your favorites.
Overall, The Taken King was a gigantic leap forward and evidence that Bungie was working on a game they were not only passionate about making, but just as passionate about playing themselves.
The Re-reboot
Bungie underwent several shakeups over the past decade. Unfortunately those persisted into Destiny 2‘s development. Originally rumored to act more like another expansion to the game, preliminary work started on the game in early 2015, with a planned release of fall 2016. However, that year Bungie underwent a major change of leadership. President Harold Ryan was removed and former COO Pete Parson was appointed CEO. The company underwent major restructuring to allow for better communication and collaboration between the different departments.
It was also rumored that the development of Destiny 2 was not going so well. Unfortunately details have yet to surface as to what the reasoning was, but in January 2016 development of Destiny 2 was restarted. Luke Smith, Game Director of launch Destiny and The Taken King expansion was brought on board to start things fresh. With only 9 months left until their slated release, Bungie decided to delay the release by a full year, to fall 2017. Bungie knew they had to bridge the gap. The content provided by The Taken King expansion had run its course and players were starting to ask for more. Bungie then decided to develop a second major expansion to hold players over. The expansion, Rise of Iron, was released fall of 2016.
To Destiny 2 and Beyond
Destiny 2 was revealed in March of 2017. Their sentiments towards their past was thinly veiled. They touted the giant “2” as a symbol to start over with a clean slate. Destiny 2 refined many of the game’s systems and made the game appeal more to a mass audience. They aimed to reclaim the player base that they had perhaps lost during Destiny 1.
The experience of playing Destiny 2 at launch was incredible. Bungie provided an epic cohesive story with interesting characters, and deep reaches into many part of the game’s lore. The destinations were beautiful and the music, breathtaking, as we have come to expect.
Sadly it didn’t take long for many of the issues with the game to surface. The oversimplification of the game’s major systems and the apparent heavy focus on micro-transaction cosmetics made it seem like Bungie had forgotten about their more hardcore player-base. Those of whom arguably kept the game relevant for 3 years prior.
Each individual change sounded good on paper, but when all combined together, resulted in a much more shallow and unenthusiastic endgame experience. This mentality carried into the first expansion, Curse of Osiris, which was panned for attempting to tell a cinematic story without contributing enough to endgame progression or player pursuits.
Major Expansion to the Rescue… again.
Forsaken will be for Destiny 2 what The Taken King was for Destiny 1. The team has promised to focus on the endgame and player pursuits. The plucky tone of Destiny 2 launch was replaced with a dark and grimy western-style revenge story. The concentration on bringing back systems and features that were left behind, and restoring the hobby for players. In my previous article on Forsaken, I went over the wide variety of endgame activities that are being brought forward, and my first hands-on impressions of the new mode Gambit left me very happy.
The obvious criticism has been made, comparing what happened with Destiny 2 with Destiny 1. Why did Bungie let the past repeat itself? Why do we have to endure Bungie’s missteps every couple years? The short and perhaps crass answer is that you don’t. You don’t have to endure any of it. The reason I stick around is because even-though I have to squint, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Even at its worst, Destiny is still more fun for me that most games at their best. And this fall, with the release of Forsaken, all signs are pointing to the best version of Destiny ever created.
We don’t know what the future will hold for Destiny. Destiny 3 is clearly in development to some degree, but for once, I want to take things a bit slower, and enjoy my favorite hobby one day at a time.
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