Summary
2023 hasn’t been the best year forDestiny 2. There have been many highs for the game since the year began, but there have also been some heavy lows, from the reception of the Lightfall expansion to the more recentBungie layoffsthat impacted the company in many departments. Morale forDestiny 2players has been low for a while, even if some of the recent additions to the game proved to be great, such as the Ghosts of the Deep Dungeon or Season of the Witch as a whole, and the recent nomination for the title at The Game Awards feels like an untimely gut punch.
The layoffs at Bungie resonated quite hard with players, who have been vocal about their discontent over the past few weeks.Destiny 2’s unconventional announcement of Season 23, called Season of the Wish, likely pulled some fans back into the game through a community puzzle and the hype train of the 15th Wish from the Forsaken era. Still, even after Bungie’s formal apology concerning the layoffs and the future of the looter-shooter, the battle remains an uphill one that isn’t guaranteed to culminate with a win come The Final Shape, especially with the TGA controversy.
RELATED:Bungie May be Shooting For the Wrong Moon With Destiny 2’s The Final Shape
Why Destiny 2’s Nomination at The Game Awards is Controversial
Destiny 2’s Issues, From Lightfall to Bungie Layoffs
Destiny 2’s nomination at The Game Awardsis a weird one because it’s for the Best Community Support category, which does feel like an out-of-season April’s Fools now that multiple community managers for the game have been laid off - most notably, Liana Ruppert. Ruppert had been a great presence for the game since her initial days, and she had quickly become a major point of contact betweenDestiny 2’s playerbase and Bungie itself. There are still some community managers left at Bungie, but with everything that’s happened, the game can hardly be defined as having some of the best community support in the industry now.
Even in the face ofLightfall’s bad rep inDestiny 2’s strange 2023, many players knew that Bungie was actively listening to feedback thanks to several changes that had been announced as well as the community managers' dedication. However, post-layoff communications from Bungie have been tagged as “The Destiny 2 Team” rather than being signed by a specific individual like in the past, including the most recent TWID post on the company’s website.
What follows is that many have now lost faith in Bungie andDestiny 2as a whole, and the TGA nomination is already causing a fuss on social media.
On top of the layoffs and the morale issue, there have been multiple reports aboutDestiny 2’s The Final Shape being delayed to 2024, allegedly sometime in June, but Bungie has not acknowledged this publicly. This is not only a bad look after what happened, but further cements the feeling that there is no longer a direct voice, a bridge of sorts, between Bungie and those who actively playDestiny 2. This makes it hard for fans to even take the Best Community Support nomination seriously, despite Bungie’s promises.
The path to recovery and to regaining players' trust is likely going to be a long one for Bungie, and the timing of the recent The Game Awards nominations doesn’t really help its case.Destiny 2is likely to try and win players back with The Final Shape, whenever it releases, but it’s not guaranteed to succeed for a plethora of reasons that are not all tied to the game’s current situation, such as what games will launch in 2024 and when. 2023 proved that competition in the industry is at an all-time high, and Bungie needs to step up its game - not in order to win trophies at The Game Awards, but to prove to players that the company’s values and its games are still at their best.
