After nearly 10 years and almost as many expansions, Destiny 2 came to an end this week. With the “Monuments of Triumph” update, Bungie has stopped supporting its shared-world shooter to focus on Marathon and incubate other potential projects.
Not every online game gets the opportunity to go out with some genuine fanfare, and it’s something Bungie knows. The update’s narrative thread is one of closure: NPCs important to past expansions wax poetic at the Guardian about the state of the galaxy, telling you how proud they are to have been by your side for your adventures. Some go off to new futures, others get admittedly touching payoffs, but none of them are complete resolutions. For a franchise that’s always been open-heartedly optimistic, it’s fitting these closers feel like a “goodbye for now,” whether you seek the characters out or pore through lore entries.
That same mindset extends to the actual narrative. Before support ended, Destiny 2 was in the early throes of its “Fate Saga,” so Bungie couldn’t help but tease what could’ve been on the horizon. Once the update went live, it didn’t take players long to discover that Guardians would’ve eventually faced off against the Winnower. This cosmic being goes back to Destiny 1 and was very much interested in a showdown “at the end of time, between champions of Dark and Light. They need your violence because I exist,” it gloats, while also getting a little meta during its monologue. “When it’s over, I won’t abandon you. Take a breather. […] Let that vigor seep back into your bones. Get hungry.”
Bungie’s currently not working on a Destiny 3, as reports indicate it would be pretty expensive to make. That hasn’t stopped the game’s community from clamoring for it, and a tease like this has only fueled that fire. News of the “Triumphs” update gave the game its highest number of players in months, followed by its highest in years once it finally went live. With the studio’s future now hinging on Marathon and whatever else it can spin up, it’ll be a long wait for a new entry, if it ever arrives. No doubt PlayStation will want a big live-service game again; the question will be whether Bungie will get the chance to make that a reality.
Until then, the only thing the studio can do is remind its community of one thing: Destiny is a mechanically great shooter with some inconsistent expansions and updates that’s nonetheless earned its longer-than-expected lifespan. For everything they inevitably got wrong, the two games would do something right that got players back on board. At the same time it led the games industry into its worst impulses or made blunders of its own accord, it had high highs, some of the genre’s coolest weapons and powers, and incredible music.
So here’s to Destiny 2 and the Bungie staff who worked on it. See ya when I play ya, and thanks for all the memories and guns.
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