It’s no surprise that things have been a bit odd around Bungie lately. First, there were the big lay-offs a few months back, then the massive delays for The Final Shape and Marathon. Now, we’ve got a whole bunch of mess surrounding the team that’s worked on Destiny 2 since its early days moving on to work in other areas of Bungie, just leaving Bungie in its entirety. Last evening, we learned that Joe Blackburn, current Destiny 2 Game Director will be passing on the torch to Tyson Green. There’s little more than speculation as to why this is happening at this point, but we certainly have some ideas about it.
Joe Blackburn hands off Destiny 2 Game Director Position
Over the past few years, Destiny 2 has become much less interesting and has fallen, unfortunately, into stagnancy. Yes, The Final Shape poses a great opportunity for this to change, but there’s still quite a bit that must happen for that to be a thing. There’s one question that stands above all else, though. Will the departure of Joe Blackburn from Bungie help to give Destiny 2 life again? It very well could. Or, it could easily be the downfall of the game as we know it. It all depends on how the new changes play out.
On Tuesday evening, Joe Blackburn posted on X (formerly Twitter) and let us know that he would be leaving Bungie after The Final Shape hits the End-to-End playtest. During this milestone in the development process of the new Destiny 2 expansion, Joe will be passing off the Game Director title to Tyson Green. While he explains how much he’s cherished his time at Bungie and being a part of Destiny 2, Blackburn lets us know that he’ll be taking on a new adventure outside the walls of Bungie.
With Blackburn Gone, What Will Happen to Destiny 2?
Honestly, any number of things can happen. Destiny 2 could essentially lose players altogether. It could be monumentally improved. Or, and this is my favorite theory, Tyson Green will be able to come at the project from a different perspective and give it what it has needed from the beginning. The possibilities are vast, and Bungie’s room for failure is slim. However, there’s a chance that Destiny 2‘s recent stale state of being can be chalked up to having the wrong person in the Game Director position.
Given that Green has some experience, I’m not so sure that a new Destiny 2 Game Director is a horrible idea. Green worked on the PvP that appeared in Halo, as well as the Exotic weapons that we had in Destiny. I don’t believe Bungie would put him in charge of anything if he wasn’t capable, especially given the current circumstances and state of the studio.
As we approach The Final Shape, and then Episodes, it’s obvious that there’s not much else going for Destiny 2. However, with Tyson Green in the Game Director’s chair, that could easily change and we could have a whole bunch to look forward to. D2 has, for some time, needed a bit of a switch-up with some new content, and Tyson might be a good choice. So far, there haven’t been many complaints about the changes, even from other employees at Bungie. X (formerly Twitter) is filled with exciting posts for the coming months and years of Destiny 2, but only time will tell what’s to come.
Over the last few updates to the game, we’ve definitely seen things that, as Guardians, we’ve been wanting and asking Bungie to deliver on for years. With the new changes to Bungie’s development team, I hope we will continue to see this throughout the coming years. I have hope that Tyson Green will step up and be the Game Director for Destiny 2 that we truly need.
Destiny 2 is now available on PC,
