Destiny 2: Forsaken has been a success for Activision, turning around public perception of the game with several notable changes and improvements and additions. It’s been receiving very good reviews, while fans have also been really pleased with several aspects of the experience. In spite of these major improvements, though, the developers seem to be very aware of the fact that it’s still far from being the finished product.
While speaking with Edge (November 2018, Issue 324), Matt Tieger, vice president and game director at Activision owned High Moon Studios (who co-developed Forsaken with Bungie), talked about how both studios working on the expansion tried to find the balance between listening to fans and doing their own thing, before mentioning that even though they’ve taken significant strides forward with this latest update, there’s still some aspects of the core Destiny 2 experience that need changing.
“There’s a sense of- I wouldn’t say pressure,” Tieger said. “Responsibility is the way we think about it. You do feel the full weight of millions of players expecting you to deliver high-quality stuff, but at the same time you have to try and be careful about how much you read on Reddit, because you can spiral yourself into a negative place.”
“The reality is that there are things that needed to change, and continue to need to change, about Destiny,” Tieger continued. “But by and large it’s a great game and people are ravenous for it- they have such a reaction to it because they care so deeply about the game.”
That’s a healthy attitude to have for any developer, no matter how successful (or not) their game is. If Bungie and High Moon can continue in this direction and make further improvements with future updates and instalments, the series might just one day reach the heights it’s always hinted at reaching. But then again, after The Taken King, it seemed that was where we were headed- which didn’t end up happening.