Among the studios that seem unable to catch a break lately, Bungie has sadly been at the top of the list. As you know, it’s been some rocky days, or rather, months for the legendary studio. First, the launch of Marathon, while successful in many ways, didn’t hit the numbers it needed. Then, we had the underwhelming post-launch of Renegades, which eventually led to the death of Destiny 2, with many blaming the extraction shooter for that. And now, we have one of the worst major update launches for a Bungie game, with people unable to log into Marathon at all. To make matters worse, during yesterday’s State of Play, there were more people asking for Destiny 3 than those playing Marathon, which doesn’t look great.
Guardians Have Spoken: They Want Destiny 3
Leaving all the reveals of yesterday’s State of Play to the side for a while, the one thing that eclipsed most of them, at least in the comments, was the hundreds, if not thousands, of players asking for Destiny 3.
For context, in case some of you don’t know for whatever reason, Destiny 2 is going into maintenance mode, which is the polite way of saying the game is dead. There’s one big update coming next week, and after that, it will just receive a few things on rotation, but nothing new will come—no more expansions, classes, or raids.
Now, this wouldn’t have been such a big blow to the community’s morale if Bungie had announced Destiny 3 alongside this devastating news. But the truth is that, instead of a bittersweet moment, it was plain bitter, as Destiny 2 is riding off into the sunset without a successor on the way.
What threw more salt into the wound was the fact that a couple of days before the announcement, Bungie announced huge plans for Marathon, as well as what is coming in the next two seasons, meaning the extraction shooter still has a long digital shelf life. Naturally, many thought that Destiny 2 died so Marathon could live, and well, we don’t blame them for believing that.
And while some are dropping into the extraction shooter, servers allowing, some are still holding to that copium and hopium, praying for Destiny 3 to come. Initially, some thought this would be just a tiny portion of the shooter’s playerbase, but the truth is that several players proved that they don’t want Destiny to die just yet.
Marathon’s Rocky Launch of Season 2 Didn’t Help
Yesterday was an awful combination of situations for Bungie and Sony, as there were more players asking for Destiny 3 in the State of Play chat than players actually jumping into Marathon. Now, while the low numbers could be attributed to the server issues, which were so many that Bungie had to shut them down for a while during the evening, several are still on a “strike” of sorts, refusing to play Marathon, even during its open play week.
On top of that, yesterday’s State of Play didn’t make Sony look good at all. Out of all the announcements, only three were first-party titles, with one already launching this year, and the others with a release window or just a teaser trailer. To add more fuel to the fire, people were spamming the chat with #wewantD3, as they ignored every other trailer and announcement.
In the end, this just looks terrible for Sony and Bungie, but mostly for the former. Players have been extremely vocal about the quality of first-party titles, as well as how Sony is managing the studios under its wing, of which Bungie is the one taking the worst shots lately.
Unfortunately, the show ended without a Destiny 3 announcement, and while some think it won’t happen, some have faith that the June 9 update will make Sony wake up and shift gears. Yet, as many also put it, this might not be the case, as we know the video game giant has become extremely anti-consumer lately, with almost no first-party titles that justify purchasing an almost $600 console. Still, if Destiny 3 were to exist at some point, things might change, but if we’re being realistic, asking Sony to give its customers what they want is a futile effort, and that’s the poor state of the gaming industry nowadays.
