Bungie just tweeted about the big Destiny 2 livestream tomorrow for the big Renegades expansion preview and Ash & Iron Major Update. It’s all casual “see you in the chat tomorrow at 9 AM PT” with tons of heart emojis. But scrolling down through the replies, it’s definitely not filling anybody with hype.
The community response is, shall we say, passionate. Passionate being a nice way of putting some serious frustration that’s bubbling up. First off, Redhood hit them with the question that probably everybody’s asking: “Can we just get some clarification… why wasn’t ash and iron SIVA?” That one just set the whole thing off. Players were, apparently, expecting SIVA content because they’re going back to the Plaguelands, and now they’re getting… not that? Ouch.
Then GamerHijabi chimes in with the numbers. It had 300,000 players on launch for Final Shape but only managed 100,000 for Edge of Fate. It’s a two-thirds drop! And the sales of Edge of Fate could only be about half of the Final Shape, yikes. Then came the layoffs on top of both not-so-great sales and Sony being unhappy. Vibes say the ship might be taking on water.
Vaulting controversy gets brought up again. Multiple people are still mad at the removal of paid content. GamerHijabi goes off on a rant about how Destiny 2 has removed “at least 75%” of its content. She isn’t quite polite about it, calling the new Kepler map “cramped and small” and basically a reskin of bits of Titan and Io. The criticism is… detailed.
But wait—I forget what I was about to say. Right, general sentiments in the replies: people want the game to be genuinely good but are frustrated. ThatSephence literally says “please be good and revert just about every EoF change.” Lord_Jadox is down about morale and begging for “more activities, easier grind, shower them in loot.” And mrfish331 drops the ultimatum: “This will determine if I play d2 again.”
The very few positive comments include TriiGz, who said, “Looking forward to this!” So, everyone is not doom and gloom. However, the hostile comments certainly are louder and more… animated, shall we say?
The biggest disappointment is, in all likelihood, the big SIVA thing. Several folks bring it up as though they were promised something that simply is not happening. Then, criticism follows about those Aionoans being somewhat lazy Adeptus Mechanicus copies from Warhammer 40K? That is some very specific nerd rage.
Also, the players want an answer about season pass rewards disappearing “Do we need to claim everything now?”
LuisAFlores85 comes in with yet more of the practical concerns draining into general frustration: “Is the Heresy Season/rewards pass going away from the app tomorrow?”
It’s interesting to see how the conversation oscillates between big-picture complaints about player numbers and content vaulting to very specific critiques about story plot holes and map design! One minute someone’s talking about Steam charts showing a decline in players, then they’re complaining that Fallen and Hive speak English, but Aionoans don’t? Consistency matters, people!
The general feeling here is Destiny 2 players want to love the game; however, Bungie’s decisions keep watering that down. They want ViDocs, less punishing grind, new content, and less reskins; basically, they want a better game.
That livestream tomorrow gets to be very important. Bungie has got to redeem all the goodwill lost in what looks like a really rough patch. The Ash & Iron update and Renegades expansion will have to carry a lot of weight concerning all these issues. If they’re serious about heavy improvements where the SIVA disappointments were… they might manage to turn the community’s attitude around.
From these replies? Work is definitely in heavy demand now. Eyes of the community are on them with their mouths widely open to vent. An interesting stream is definitely on the agenda for tomorrow morning; I’ll definitely be watching how this is handled.
