By As it strives to amend certain polarizing modifications introduced in Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate before the major Star Wars expansion Renegades, developer Bungie has appointed new Destiny global franchise director Hilary Hidey.
Hidey announced the news via Twitter at the beginning of the month. “I’ve adored this franchise for what feels like a lifetime, and I’m thrilled to contribute to its future,” she writes. In reply to a fan, she confirms her long-standing commitment as an avid player since the days of Destiny 1.
According to the Moby Games profile linked in her Twitter account, as well as her LinkedIn career background, Hidey most recently departed from BioWare after working on Dragon Age: The Veilguard, specifically as a member of the “Mass Effect strike team” assembled to bring the long-challenged RPG to completion. Bloomberg previously reported that this Mass Effect team was pivotal in executing significant renovations and some of the most cherished portions of The Veilguard, including its conclusion.
Hidey had been the leading producer on Mass Effect 5 – “The Next Mass Effect,” as she refers to it on LinkedIn – until just last month when she moved to Bungie.
Her previous positions encompass senior brand manager, product manager, and various “additional contributions” across a spectrum of games associated with Bethesda, BioWare, and EA broadly.
Hidey served as senior brand manager on Starfield, contributed to the Bethesda-released titles Hi-Fi Rush and Ghostwire: Tokyo, and worked on several expansions for The Elder Scrolls Online as well as the Elder Scrolls: Legends card game (RIP, sweet prince). The Evil Within 2 and Dishonored: Death of the Outsider also reaped the benefits of her contributions.
Her career in game development commenced with Mass Effect 3 in 2012, which then ushered her to Dragon Age: Inquisition and various DLCs.
What is her position at Bungie? A title like global franchise director could take various forms based on the involved studio, game, or IP. According to archived and replicate Bungie job listings for a Destiny 2 global franchise director – which designate global franchise marketing director in certain sections – “this position is ultimately responsible for the publishing triumph of the Destiny IP.
“This position will also engage as a crucial member of the Destiny 2 Leadership team to advocate crucial consumer insights and analytics to enhance commercial and marketing influence, customer satisfaction, and franchise prosperity,” the job outline states. It appears to be a manager of managers overseeing substantial components to ensure the momentum remains in the right direction.
Hidey’s hiring arrives at a rather critical juncture for Destiny 2, with player counts dwindling and player sentiment remaining equally bleak on many days (we only possess sound Steam player data as usual, and Destiny 2 has a massive console audience, so at best we can vaguely estimate based on SteamDB analytics). Numerous individuals are still enjoying the game, but a considerable number – including virtually every Destiny enthusiast I know and several prominent content creators – are not.
The 11-year-old MMO is familiar with the “It’s so over / We’re so back” rhythm, but this particular Over Arc, rooted in seismic and half-baked systemic adjustments that simultaneously trimmed much of the game’s enjoyable content and burdened the remainder with a monotonous Power grind and a poorer economy than the 1930s’, has marked one of the game’s most challenging periods ever.
Bungie has implemented several positive adjustments since the release of The Edge of Fate, which garnered some of the most unfavorable critiques Destiny has ever encountered, but it mostly has rectified issues the game did not have prior to this expansion. The actual fix-it patch will depend on Destiny 2: Renegades, the December expansion – which is addressing its own challenges because its overt, somewhat disconcerting Star Wars layer has materialized at a time when numerous players are already examining the game’s identity as a whole and seeking the enjoyment they once experienced and not, you know, light sabers.
It would be absurd and unjust to place this solely on any one individual, but I believe the reception to this high-level appointment from much of the Destiny 2 community reflects the current condition of the game. There’s optimism that Hidey’s role in the Veilguard ‘closer’ team at BioWare could herald a similar reversal at Bungie, with player sentiment essentially boiling down to cautious optimism and a heartfelt “good luck,” but let’s avoid putting too many expectations on the shoulders of a single role.