Sometimes it feels like Bungie has been the luckiest and unluckiest video game company for the exact same play they made- creating their timely split into their own twisted Kobayahsi Maru. Although, I guess maybe the five years of burning success so powerful it lead the rest of the industry off a cliff in pursuit could be considered an undeniable grace period. Maybe atrophy truly is the inevitable path of all and we shouldn't be surprised when the thing we love rots and fades to dust. Which can be evidenced by how many series and franchises run out of steam and become unbearable the more they stick around, whilst the graceful bow-outs remain beloved in our hearts and minds. Star Wars is a cringey joke and Avatar the Last Airbender is considered a timeless masterpiece. But I'm getting off track here.
On one hand, Bungie were responsible for one of the most influential First Person Shooter video game franchises of history. Twice. Halo proved to be the progenitor of many of the standards of online competitive shooters that are still sought after to this day, establishing an unforgettable protagonist and branding for their partner console developer for the foreseeable future. They rode that franchise for over a decade, ending with what many consider to be the pinnacle of the franchise as their last main line entry (Halo 3) and what I think is the pinnacle of the campaigns in their side-game release. (Halo Reach) Literally one exact entry before the franchise started going off a cliff with the rough-narrative of Halo 4, affixed with that terrible new faction that marked the beginning never ending spiral of Halo. So 'Lucky Bungie', right?
'Destiny' was Bungie's next port of call and it proved to be their smash hit slam dunk for years, until they decided to throw it to the wayside in order to drum up Destiny 2... which was an even bigger success story! It truly cannot be overstated how influential Bungie were during this period of their life, either. Destiny created the Live Service meta that we're all living under today- with the exception of the battle-pass standard that was borne from over exposure during the 'Fortnite' days. Bungie created the idea of the pseudo-MMO, which didn't over stuff itself with all the 'complex connective infrastructure' or 'social connection facilitating' of a proper MMO but leveraged the constant support and updates to keep an engaged audience coming back and feeding into the product through microtransaction purchases.
But now it seems that very same industry that Bungie helped kickstart is turning into such a minefield that it might have just blown up Bungie themselves. Just as we've seen from the studio after studio twisted into pathetic attempts to copy them, from Avengers to Suicide Squad, this really is an industry of 'all or nothing' that puts everyone on the edge of their jobs with each new release. We've seen companies scarred by their time trying to kick off a Live Service, and the lucky one's get to brush themselves off and slip into an entirely new project stained with only the failure of their time in the mud pit. Destiny, on the otherhand, might just have taken the spirit of Bungie with them if we read most gloomily into the newest developments.
I am talking of course about the several hundreds of layoffs that Bungie, a not-particular giant developer, suffered just very recently under the provision of Sony and all the chaos that has occurred in it's wake. Bungie has lost staff from every corner of their company, stripping economically from every team in a wind-down that couldn't come at a more un-opportune time considering they are, following the competition of Destiny 2's core narrative, moving on to at least two new games in the near to near-distant future. This really the time they should be bulking up, but whether at the insistence of Sony or internal pressure from Investors- Bungie is losing that which gives it that iconic identity- it's talented staff.
Much has come out in the time since- especially considering everyone has had their hands on their hips wandering why exactly this is happening in the wake of Destiny's latest update 'The Final Shape' which by all accounts was a slam-dunk finale for the franchise. Well, it would seem that 'The Final Shape' comes in the aftermath of 'Lightfall', which was the update for which I tried to get back into Destiny only to realise how hopelessly anti-newcomer it was and dropping the thing after a couple of days. (And I played Destiny 1 literally religiously back in the day- they screwed the on-boarding process beyond relief!) Lightfall was an absolute disaster that decimated public sentiment and although it sold, the lost value from it's reception ended up scarring Bungie further than we could have ever imagined.
Reports now say that no matter how well 'The Final Shape' performed, Bungie was due for serious cuts to it's staff anyway. In essence they only kept people around long enough to complete their work on the game before kicking them to the curb with the power of god- creating another horrendously bizarre visual of a seemingly successful product resulting in mass layoffs. (Thanks for starting that trend, Microsoft!) Now I'd say public sentiment is more shaky than it has ever been before, with people wandering if there is even a future for Destiny from this point forward- or if the game is going to enter a holding pattern of no expansions for the foreseeable future. And to be honest- doesn't that seem like exactly what they're planning? Keeping the team around just long enough to finish the narrative and then gutting them? Sounds like 'wrap up' behaviour to me!
Of course in this most volatile time it's easy to point fingers. Fingers at the fans for not supporting the game at a troubling time and instead jumping on the reactionary train, fingers at the executives for refusing to take paycuts in hopes of saving some of the layoffs because (I quote) "We're not that sort of company", (yikes!) and fingers at Sony for being the paymasters that should really be taking care of one of their biggest currently in-house studios instead of putting them to task like this- especially considering they simultaneously expect Bungie to be leading their online-gaming efforts for the foreseeable future. (Or does Sony really expect Concord to pop off? A game of such negative rizz I had to look up it's name? Fat chance there!) But at the end of the day, maybe we should point the finger at karma itself- for coming to reap what it's sown.
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