Summary
It’s been a tough year forDestiny 2for multiple reasons, starting from the failure to deliver a quality expansion with Lightfall to Eververse controversies, culminating with reported losses in terms of revenue or projected revenue that fueled the decision to have layoffs at the company on October 30. The recentBungie layoffsaffected key figures across several departments, reportedly for a total of 8% of staff, and it seems that all of these decisions came from the company’s management rather than Sony. As a result, especially considering the biggest reports on the situation, The Final Shape expansion might very well be stuck in limbo for two different reasons.
Destiny 2’s The Final Shapeis the culmination of the Light and Darkness saga that the series has been delivering and hyping up for almost ten years, which in and of itself is a big deal already. However, Lightfall broke some trust from the playerbase due to its lack of delivery, partly tied to the way the story was set up and partly because of the huge focus on Strand more than answers ahead of the saga finale. The recent layoffs broke fans' trust even more, depriving them of some great points of contact with the company, such as community manager Liana Ruppert, and the expansion now has a lot more riding on its shoulders.
RELATED:Bungie Issues Statement on Destiny 2’s Future After Layoffs
Destiny 2’s The Final Shape Might be Delayed and Face More Issues
If The Final Shape expansion already had to deliver an unforgettable experience to make up for the shortcomings ofDestiny 2over the year, it now has to do that even more as a statement that Bungie is still very much alive, kicking, and caring about the game. This is nothing short of hard to achieve, especially with the premise thatDestiny 2players are refunding The Final Shapenow as a sort of retaliation against Bungie, a way to try and send a message after the layoffs.
Not only that, though, as the original report from Jason Schreier statedThe Final Shape would be delayed to June 2024andMarathonwould be delayed to 2025 as part of the layoffs. It was also stated that the choice to delay The Final Shape was probably ignited by two factors: one being the fact that it would end up in the next fiscal year for Sony, and the other being that it was deemed “good, but not great” by playtesters.
Why Not Confirming or Denying The Final Shape’s Delay Hurts Destiny 2
However, today Bungie didn’t release a TWID post and instead issued a statement about this week’s events, talking about how the company wants to deliver one of the best expansions ever and regain players' trust - not confirming or denying the delay. The choice to not confirm or deny The Final Shape’s alleged delay can not only be perceived as contrarian to regaining players' trust by not being transparent, but it seems deliberate. Confirming or denyingDestiny 2’s conclusion of the Light and Darkness sagais coming four months later could lead to more discussions, but not denying it also seems to confirm it indirectly - otherwise, one could ask themselves why not do it.
With an unconfirmed (nor denied) delay for The Final Shape, and with Bungie having to deliver the best expansion Destiny 2 has ever seen, the next release seems to be stuck in limbo on two fronts - and right now there is no answer.
It’s unclear what will happen next, but Bungie did state that the usual TWID will come back next week with more updates from the PvP team. The road to recovery, and possibly healing, is likely a long and difficult one for the company, and no single outcome is set in stone. Similarly, any players' mixed feelings or distrust of the company andDestiny 2as a whole are valid, and whether The Final Shape manages to win fans back remains to be seen.
