Why there received’t ever be one other Destiny

Ten years in the past this day, Activision printed a brand fresh shooter from Halo developer Bungie: Destiny.

Though ‘a shooter’ could well maybe be a tad reductive, since it used to be above and beyond the relaxation Bungie – or certainly other studios – had produced.

“When Destiny originally launched, there was nothing quite like it – even figuring out how to communicate its genre was a massive communication exercise for the marketing teams,” indie developer, handbook, and licensed Destiny fan Rami Ismail tells GamesIndustry.biz. “It used to be an FPS, obvious, and structured enjoy an MMO however not moderately ‘huge’. It used to be PvE with a huge marketing and marketing campaign, however also PvP. It took the ‘looter shooter’ and made that a truly successful reside provider model.

“That combination became one of the ‘things to make’ for almost half a decade, before Fortnite came along. In that way, like every trend setting game, Destiny was both a boon and a curse. If anything, it was the first major indicator that live service was going to be the thing for the decade since.”

“Destiny deserves to be studied as the encapsulation of a very specific period in the development of video games, one that I don’t think we’ll ever get back to”

Rachel Weber, IGN

IGN managing editor (and GamesIndustry.biz alum) Rachel Weber provides that not handiest used to be Destiny the first game to nail the charm of a shared world shooter, it also demonstrated Bungie’s persevering with prowess when it got here to world-building and storytelling. “

“It stood out as more than just a pretty shader applied to the same old pew pew mechanics. It was a rare idea that appealed to the lucrative competitive shooter and MMORPG crowds, an audience who were the first to make peace with microtransactions and content chopped up into expansions.”

Statistics from Circana’s Retail Monitoring Carrier lend a hand add extra context to Destiny’s success: since it first launched in September 2014, Destiny has change into the thirty fourth greatest video game franchise of all time in phrases of US paunchy-game greenback sales all the scheme via physical and digital – and that’s without microtransactions and DLC expansions.

The usual Destiny used to be the thirtieth simplest-promoting game between September 2014 and July 2024, beating Fallout 4 however in the lend a hand of Elden Ring. Destiny 2, in the period in-between, is 61st – that’s again for paunchy-game sales handiest.

Bungie caught the alternate’s attention on the time and, as with every other video games sensation, Destiny inspired others to coach in its footsteps.

The Destiny stay

Ampere Evaluation’ Piers Harding-Rolls says Destiny stands as primarily the most successful franchise to mix the looter shooter vogue with the reside provider model, whereas Bungie’s coping with of the shift to free-to-play in October 2019 change into “a live service blueprint for retaining a happy userbase.”

The analyst says you stumble on the influence of Destiny in titles corresponding to EA and BioWare’s Anthem and Ubisoft’s The Division. Even in 2024, we’re seeing releases that plan inspiration from Bungie’s title, corresponding to Sony’s Helldivers 2 and Nexon’s The First Descendant. But whereas these sorts of video games contain fared nicely, Harding-Rolls notes that most publishers contain “underestimated the investment and expertise needed to deliver something of the scale and success of Destiny and Destiny 2.”

“There are lots of games that were influenced by Destiny and likewise there were lots of games that inspired Bungie to build Destiny. Most games inspired by the Destiny franchise have been unable to deliver its longevity and long-term engagement,” he says, citing Anthem, Wonder’s Avengers, Outriders, and Babylon’s Tumble as top examples of Destiny-inspired video games that struggled or outright failed.

“Most of these games failed because they didn’t have the depth of content, the polished product or the gameplay quality delivered by Destiny. They were not good enough to pull gamers away from their chosen live service games for a long period of time.”

“Everyone’s leaned on the ‘Bungie magic’ and the rabbit hasn’t always come out of the hat in the way everyone had hoped”

Mat Piscatella, Circana

Weber provides: “The cursed ghost city that used to be Anthem encapsulates the total mistakes the agencies chasing the Destiny greenback made. There had been the reviews of a nervous, directionless pattern, technical issues that made it an unreliable expertise whether or not you had been attempting to play solo or with mates, and a total underestimation of how like a flash avid gamers would burn via divulge material.

“We won’t ever see another Destiny. It’s had ten years of constant change, highs and lows, and multiple expansions – you’re never going to be able to sell that formula to a boardroom of moneymen. The risks are too huge, the challenge is too big, and – as Harmony has confirmed – the persistence required is too high.

“Destiny deserves to be studied as the encapsulation of a very specific period in the development of video games, one that I don’t think we’ll ever get back to.”

Circana’s executive director for video video games Mat Piscatella says that, whereas Destiny confirmed how titles could well maybe furthermore preserve avid gamers and their wallets for prolonged periods of time, titles corresponding to Fortnite, Minecraft, Roblox, and Mountainous Theft Auto Online contain since “perfected the formula.”

“Most games inspired by Destiny have been unable to deliver its longevity and long-term engagement”

Piers Harding-Rolls, Ampere Evaluation

“Since then, Anthem, Remnant 2, The Division, Borderlands 3, and of course Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League have all entered the market following at least parts of the Destiny formula,” he says. “None of those video games moderately reached the success Destiny accomplished. I’m not obvious that any future titles will either.

“While the gameplay elements, social hooks, and loot aspects of the game will always be attractive to players, I’m not sure we’ll see another self-contained game like it succeed in the same way due to changing player tastes and the competitive offerings from things like Fortnite.”

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter suggests Destiny’s influence could well be considered in other genres.

“No two games are identical – except maybe Battlefield and Call of Duty – but it’s clear that Destiny begat Overwatch, Apex Legends, and maybe some elements of Fortnite,” he says. “The variations in characters (for Destiny, particularly with the introduction of alien races) keeps the RPG element of the game fresh, and there is lots of variability of weapons, making the game seem [new] each season. I suspect that we haven’t seen the end of RPG shooters.”

The future of Bungie

Given the visible influence Destiny has had on one of the necessary necessary final be aware-profile multiplayer video games over the past ten years – and particularly over one of the necessary necessary greatest failures – it could well be easy to argue that Bungie’s title by myself build the alternate on its fresh route, shifting an increasing number of to a reside provider model.

Piscatella disagrees with this – “It’s always been its own weird thing in a way” – in its build arguing that the greatest influence Destiny has had on the alternate lies in Bungie and its relationship with publishers.

Destiny used to be printed because the first title in a ten-twelve months deal between Bungie and Activision Blizzard, the first agreement the studio had secured after reclaiming its independence from Microsoft. The partnership ended two years early, nonetheless, with Activision claiming Destiny “was not meeting [its] financial expectations” however that the atomize up used to be a “mutual agreement.”

Bungie survived four years as an self reliant earlier than it used to be received by Sony for $3.6 billion, half of the PlayStation firm’s yell to effect itself in the reside provider dwelling. Experiences contain immediate that, whereas Bungie used to be before the whole lot given a criminal level of autonomy, Sony has thought to be taking on if the studio fails to meet its financial targets.

“I’m not sure [the Activision deal] went the way anyone really wished it to,” says Piscatella. “And having a peruse now on the post-Sony acquisition generation, or not it is a ways ceaselessly been a slight bumpy, to yell the least. There had been the extra than one waves of layoffs needless to claim, and the transition of employees from Bungie to Sony roles.

“Destiny has been the thing that has tied these eras together. Everyone’s leaned on the ‘Bungie magic’ and the rabbit hasn’t always come out of the hat in the way everyone had hoped.”