Destiny 2 game director says recent State of the Game communication ‘wasn’t up to our standards’

Destiny 2’s game director has taken to Twitter to tell players that Bungie‘s recent communication regarding the game hasn’t been as good as it should be.

In a 16-minute video on Twitter, Joe Blackburn addressed a number of issues that have arisen from a State of the Game blog article posted on the official Destiny site on August 3.

“A few weeks ago we put up a State of the Game communication that wasn’t up to our standards for what you all have come to expect from those kinds of communications,” Blackburn said.

“It didn’t provide the high-level vision that we normally provide, and really and truly, a bunch of us were heads down and working on The Final Shape [expansion DLC] and weren’t able to give it the sort of care and love that we normally put into these kind of communications. And that’s nobody’s fault but mine here on this.”

Blackburn also conceded that Bungie’s current strategy of delivering “one new [PvP] map and a few reprises a year” isn’t working, and that the studio will instead be releasing a free pack of maps next year.

“I think it’s fair to say this approach is not producing the Crucible that our players expect [from] us,” he explained.

“It’s clear that the slow trickle of PvP maps isn’t having the effect we want, and although it gets an injection of PvP maps every so often in the ecosystem, it’s also forcing this one new map a year, which means we’re trying to build a map that does everything, which means it can’t be good at anything.

“So next year we’re going to change our philosphy. Instead of a slow trickle of maps throughout the year, we’re going to focus our effort into a single map pack that’s free for everyone.

“So imagine new maps coming in one drop, where we can make a bunch of new experiences that can all be good at specific things, and adds a big variety in a single drop next year.

“Now, this is a shift from our strategy, so it’s going to take us time to understand the details of what we’re putting out here and get that out to you all next year.”

Blackburn also said the studio wants to bring more test modes to its core playlists, and will be giving all players a free Eververse armour set for Season 22.

Destiny 2’s next major piece of content, The Final Shape, is due for release in February 2024. It’s said to conclude the Light and Darkness saga, which has been building since the first expansion to the original game.