We are about to switch over from Destiny 2’s Season of the Witch to Season of the Wish, rearranging a few letters that I will definitely not screw up as I write about it for the indefinite future.
And it is an indefinite future, as despite many, many sources saying The Final Shape has been internally delayed, Bungie has not announced anything. I figured they would always wait until after Season of the Wish launched, to not tamp down on the hype for that. But the question now is sort of…what hype?
I honestly can’t believe that Season of the Wish starts tomorrow. The playerbase is quiet about it. Bungie is quiet about it. This is the final season before The Final Shape, the last “real” season in Destiny 2 as we move toward the “episodic” model. And what we’ve gotten is a bunch of TWABs of balance changes and the tiniest of teaser trailers. That may be joined by a longer one today or tomorrow like, an hour before launch. But what’s going on here?
I think it’s a combination of things. First, it’s already been a rough year for Destiny 2 with engagement down, even during a good season like Season of the Witch, which has hit all-time playercount lows on Steam. Second, this was amplified by the Bungie layoffs, where many players just feel extremely demoralized both by Bungie’s actions and the idea that the game has lost something besides just people in the wake of that brutal decision.
Then we have the marketing thing, the anti-hype that Bungie seems to be excellent at generating for its seasons lately. I was previously told by a (now ex) Bungie person that the reason there is so little marketing for Destiny 2 seasons is that unlike full expansions, which get giant showcases six months early, you cannot pre-order seasons. So the idea is…why would you advertise seasons that much ahead of time that players cannot buy the moment you are debuting those previews?
This is something that makes sense on paper, but in practice, it seems pretty off-base. There are of course many, many live service games that spend plenty of time hyping up, teasing or showing off their upcoming seasons, even if they also cannot be pre-ordered. Far more than Destiny does, certainly, with its key art and literally 10 seconds of footage. In addition to all these other things, I think this contributes to what’s happening now, sort of just stumbling upon new seasons unless you have been hyper vigilant about keeping up with TWABs.
As I’ve said before, I think we are about to head into a very dark time in Destiny 2 for this next season. We are starting, as I’ve said, with very low motivation and anticipation, given recent events. And we are headed toward what is likely to be an exhaustingly extended season with no 30th Anniversary Event in the middle for a significant boost. That’s a problem, and I am worried about the state of the game before The Final Shape arrives given how much drop-off is likely to occur. But we’ll dig deeper into that later.
So until then, see you tomorrow, maybe.
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