Destiny 2 News

Destiny 2 has entered seemingly its worst chapter since it first released - which is really saying a lot. After Bungie laid off "around 8%" of staff recently, reports came out suggesting that a sharp drop in revenue is partly to blame for the layoffs.

It all seemingly began with the launch of the Lightfall expansion in February, when things really started trending downwards for Destiny 2 - causing the game to reportedly miss its revenue targets by a staggering 45%.

Sentiment is one thing, of course, but hard data is a different story. As spotted by Forbes, Destiny 2's player numbers have been in a free fall for a while now. A quick glance at the game's SteamDB numbers shows that it used to peak at over 300,000 players, over 200,000 players, and over 100,000 players at its worst. Numbers have now fallen well below that.

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This Week in Destiny, we are seven days closer to the Season of the Wish.

So if you were wishing for even more details, you’ve come to the right place! The team has some news to share regarding Lost Sectors and ritual activities. And don't you worry, we will still share even more next week. Let’s get into it.

Topics for this week:

• Teaser trailer for Season of the Wish
  
• Season Pass Exotic preview
  
• Economy recap and Lost Sectors update
  
• Veteran’s Day update
  
• Iron Banner last call
  
• Season of the Wish dungeon date
  
• New Prime Gaming rewards are here
  

Visit Bungie.net for the full TWID.

The Game Awards announced its nominees last night, yet Destiny 2 has landed a Best Community Support nomination despite Bungie laying off numerous community managers.

Whatever you think of The Game Awards (I'll refrain from sharing my real feelings here), it is undeniably the biggest awards show of the year in games. There are absolutely plenty of important awards shows, but this one has the most money so can afford a big fancy venue to host at and can get people like Al Pacino to present the awards, so at the very least it's the most expensive. That does translate to having more eyes on it, though, which means a lot of people will see that Destiny 2 has yet again received a Best Community Support nomination, when just last month it laid off a number of its staff, which did notably include several social and community managers.

It isn't exactly surprising that the game has received the nomination, it has done for years, alongside regulars like Final Fantasy 14, but you can't help but be left with a bit of a bad taste in your mouth on this particular occasion. Former Destiny 2 community manager Liana Ruppert, who was affected by last month's layoffs, shared her feelings of the nomination on Twitter, writing, "Personal feelings aside as a team that asked for more people not less, I will say that Cozmo, Bruno, Ivan, and Timon advocate for players in a way that you will never know. There are so many poor decisions diverted because of their care and knowledge, and good decisions amplified."

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This Week in Destiny, we get back up.

Last week was a tough week. We appreciate all of you who’ve shared your kindness and empathy toward those affected and those at the studio.

We talked a little about Our Path Forward to The Final Shape last week. We will continue to give it our all, and we have confidence that The Final Shape will be an expansion everyone will want to experience. There will be Episodes to follow with more adventures to be had. As tough as these past few weeks have been, we’re as determined as ever to make Destiny 2 the best game it can be for our players.

We’ve got some more topics in this TWID to get to, but also want to thank you for all of the support you continue to show us.

Let's get back to it.

Topics for this week:

• Season of the Wish announcement
  
• Crucible Strike Team updates
  
• Season 23 Ritual weapon preview
  
• Weapon pool updates
  

Visit Bungie.net for the full TWID.

Bungie has released an official blog post acknowledging the substantial layoffs put upon staff who've been working on Destiny 2, as well as assuring fans that the upcoming expansion for the MMOFPS would be "an unforgettable Destiny experience". This comes as fans mourn the departure of various key figures in the game's development.

"This has been one of the most difficult weeks in our studio’s history, as we’ve parted ways with people we respect and admire," is the first line of the post, penned by 'the Destiny 2 dev team'. "We’ve spent this week supporting one another, including those who are at the studio, as well as friends and colleagues who no longer are."

According to reports from various journalists and outlets, the treatment of the roughly 100 "colleagues who no longer are" has been anything by supportive. Jason Schrier at Bloomberg reported that employees woke up on Monday October 30 to sudden meetings where they would be fired. They would receive severance and health benefits for at least three months, but other benefits ended the same day resulting in a rush to file expenses. Staff on a vesting schedule since the Sony Acquisition (basically stock options linked with time employed) lost any shares that were not vested at the time of their firing.

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