The Destiny 2 development team sent out a message to the community today almost apologizing for the recent mass layoffs at Bungie. The layoffs reportedly affected over 100 employees, including many who worked on Destiny 2 and veterans of the team. However, they didn’t actually apologize but mostly said that they acknowledged how the fans felt and that the dev team wasn’t doing enough.
In the message, the team acknowledged that they had “lost a lot of your trust” and that they needed to “surprise and delight” players more often. They also stated that they are “intensely focused on exceeding your expectations for The Final Shape,” the next Destiny 2 expansion.
The message comes in response to widespread criticism of Bungie in recent months which culminated in layoffs that removed many members of the team. This included Mike Salvatori, who’s been with Bungie for over 25 years. Many players have expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of the game’s content, particularly in recent seasons. Some players have also criticized Bungie’s decision to delay the release of The Final Shape until 2024.
While this acknowledgment of feelings post is nice, it is really just words. We need to see what they want to do to regain the trust of the community. The Destiny 2 post said that they “haven’t done this enough and that’s going to change.”
The mass layoffs were a particularly low point, as they showed that Bungie was willing to lay off its own employees to save money. Sometimes that definitely is necessary and there are no winners, but it’s hard to say that they tried to stop it based on the quality of recent expansions.
Ultimately, The Final Shape will end up being a huge factor in what fans think of Bungie. If the expansion is a disappointment, the community will lose even more trust. However, if The Final Shape is a truly great expansion, then it could go a long way toward restoring the community’s faith in Bungie.
Still, we have high hopes that Destiny 2, and in effect Bungie, can regain its good name.
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