Bungie has announced upcoming changes to Destiny 2 in a post on the company blog. It outlines the changes that will be implemented into the game over the upcoming year.
These changes are a significant overhaul for the developer that seemed to be holding its fingers in its ears.
Overhauling Experience
Bungie is known for telling its playerbase for Destiny that it's "listening" to what they have to say, with little or no updates for extended periods of time. With the upcoming changes Chris Barrett, director of Destiny 2, hopes to change that so players know that the team is actually listening.
"At the end of last year, I made a promise that I would update you on our plans for Destiny 2. The team has been hard at work and we're ready to share where we are headed," said Barrett in the new update. "We used to wait to talk about game updates until we were certain we could meet our deadlines to avoid letting players down if we changed our plans. No longer. We're not just listening, we are doing."
One of the highlights of the post acknowledging the gorilla in the room, Eververse. "We recognize that the scales are tipped too far towards Tess at the moment, and Eververse was never intended to be a substitute for end game content and rewards," said Barret about the microtransaction store. The new content put in the game will be shifted more towards activity rewards and less into Bright Engrams — meaning Ghosts, Sparrows, and ships will not only be found in Bright Engrams.
Bungie lists a long outline of upcoming changes in the blog post. One of the changes coming up to the game at the end of January includes adding Masterwork armor. In February, Bungie will make changes to the Strike scoring system and adjust the Mod system. Other changes include seeing your fireteam on the map, multi-emotes, more vault space, and changes to endgame rewards.
Endgame has been a big issue with the playerbase. Although no details were revealed, Bungie says that it will be announcing changes soon. The full list of changes contains more details including changes that will come later in the year, such as Masterwork Exotics.
We're Listening
Bungie is also making changes to what they refer to as "Expansion 2" — the name leaked as Gods of Mars. Barrett promised changes based on player's disappointment with Curse of Osiris.
"We're taking the time we need in development of Expansion 2 that will allow us to react to player feedback from Curse of Osiris," said Barrett referring to player's disappointment. Adding that the team is eager to show players changes to the upcoming story.
Changes are also coming to the Crucible during the year. 6v6 PVP will return to Destiny, in addition to the current 4v4 modes. Mayhem is still slated to be a limited-time event. Bungie is also planning changes to make quitting less common.
When Destiny 2 was released players praised the changes to the story while looking past all of the previous changes to the first game that were left behind in the original. When it came time for the endgame content, players were outraged by the fact that most of the loot had to be obtained from the Eververse store.
This is a pattern for Bungie, first outraging players then appeasing them through various changes implemented through the lifecycle of the game. The first game — the Taken King DLC, which made sweeping changes to leveling, recalibrating weapons, and even vault space — was similarly overhauled.
