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How do you say goodbye to a game you’ve played for 10+ years of your life?
It’s something I’m grappling with now after Bungie announced that Destiny 2’s next update, Monument of Triumph, will be its last. Live service games have come and gone over the years, but for me, this feels different.
For the first time since Destiny launched in 2014, there’s no clear future for the shared-world shooter. Reporting from Bloomberg suggests imminent lay-offs at Bungie alongside Destiny 3 not being in active development. That isn’t to say it won’t happen someday, or that we won’t see more of this world again, but there’s a tangible sense of finality around the sunsetting of this live-service behemoth.
For all of its flaws and shortcomings, Destiny 2 was one of the best to ever do it. Many will remember it for its lows, but those who were truly invested will recall its highs. The generational expansions Bungie would put out when backed against the wall, the unforgettable first clear of a new raid, the ridiculous bugs and exploits commemorated by in-game emblems like The Craftening or Laser Tag Weekend.
To get a bit personal here, this announcement is an emotional gut-punch for me. I’m coming up on 26 now – I’ve been playing Destiny for almost half of my life. I still remember picking up Destiny at just 14 years old, experiencing Vault of Glass for the first time with my friends and random online players that would go on to become lifelong teammates. I’d make time for expansion releases, contest raids, dungeons, Trials weekends, and so much more. I didn’t grow up with the early Halo games, sure I played 3 and Reach in my youth, but in many ways, Destiny is my Halo.
Thousands of hours between both games, across platforms, all campaigns completed on each class, weekly raids, Grandmaster Nightfall farming – Destiny has been a seasonal ritual for me for years. I chased titles, renewed Conqueror every single season, and prepared bounties ahead of each major release. If I had nothing else to play or things got hard, Destiny was always there for me to comfortably slip back into.
I would always drift away during low points (of which there were many), but I would always come back. For now, there is no coming back after June 9th. I’ll complete Pantheon 2.0, experience the new story beats, play with the new sandbox, and have my fill of the returning Sparrow Racing League, but the content well will eventually run dry. I know this was inevitable, but it still hurts, and it still feels like things could’ve been different.
The memories I have from my time playing Destiny and Destiny 2 are irreplaceable. Experiencing its best stories in The Taken King, Forsaken, The Witch Queen, and The Final Shape. Defeating the Witness an hour before contest mode was to be switched off on Salvation’s Edge. Running the absolute gauntlet that was Last Wish when it first dropped and completing it before the weekly reset. All of these moments experienced in the best way possible – with friends.
Speaking of which, I don’t think we’ll see anything like what Bungie was able to achieve with Destiny’s raids. They vary in quality, sure, but there isn’t a single stinker in the lot. These are what kept me hooked – the allure of the pinnacle challenge, gunning for a high placement amongst the world’s best, with some not-too-shabby results, if I do say so myself. If you’ll indulge a humble flex, I don’t think anything shows my investment more than five top 100 placements, one of those landing in the top 50 – and that’s not including the dungeons.
Even when I didn’t have the friends around to fill a fireteam, the community was there to plug the gaps. I’ve played with countless Guardians over the years across so much content, very few of these instances resulting in a negative experience. I struggle to see how anything could ever top my first time running Excision, Destiny’s first 12-man activity that wrapped up it’s decade-spanning light and darkness saga – the Avengers Assemble moment that everything had been building up to.
The memes, the shitposting, the fanart, the camaraderie. All of it integral to what Destiny has become today. Nothing captures the spirit of this community more than when Lance Reddick unexpectedly passed away after the launch of Lightfall. I remember logging in that day to run Root of Nightmares, loading into the Tower only to see players huddled around Commander Zavala, saluting a fallen guardian. It was powerful to witness it then, and it’s powerful to think about now.
Another special shoutout should go to the narrative team. They may not have always stuck the landing on main stories, but you could always count on lore tabs, flavour text, and seasonal beats to deliver the goods. Destiny’s world is a rich tapestry of space opera delights – primordial forces of nature, eldritch horrors, fabled wish dragons, seemingly insurmountable Gods and more. All of it underpinned by nuanced characters and writing that always looked to do something new with each release.
Destiny was a trailblazer. Failing, so other live-service experiences could sidestep the same shortfalls, but Bungie would always pick it back up. Destiny walked so other titles could run, but Bungie would make sure Destiny caught up in that race all the same. It still feels like there’s more of that race to run – narrative threads left on the table, corners of the universe left unexplored, new alien races to combat and befriend, beings of inconceivable power left unchecked.
For now, though, it’s done. Hopefully not forever, but certainly for a good few years. Bungie has left an indelible mark on the industry with Destiny, and its enduring legacy will shine among the stars as a guide for future experiences looking to emulate what it achieved. We became legend, but so did Destiny.
In the words of Eris Morn: “Recovery is a spiral, not a circle. You may return to the same patterns, but you will break free.”
Thank you, Bungie and thank you to the Destiny community, who made these games unlike anything else. We had one hell of a run.
If you have fond memories of Destiny, please share them with me. I would love to hear about your experiences with one of Bungie’s greatest.
