Bungie has publicly disclosed their weekly update for Destiny 2, and players have begun to see some hints of the Halloween event already. This year’s Festival of the Lost, along with some changes that are considered controversial, have already split the community. The announcement was first made on the Twitter account of the official DestinyTheGame, which immediately highlighted several updates that would indeed attract attention, including, among others, the Call to Arms event, Creator Hub challenges, and progression changes. However, while some guardians already feel daunted by the formidable seasonal content, others are expressing their doubts and fears about the game’s current situation.
So, what is the actual 2025 Festival of the Lost event this time? The preview is slowly unveiling the event which seems more like a reworked version of the past than the creation of the entirely new content. A member of the player base stated that “Festival of the Lost is no longer Headless’s haunted sectors… Its Altar of Sorrows but SPOOOOOOOKY!” which indicates that Bungie is redoing the same activities of the past but with Halloween theme this time. Another guardian was very vocal about his concern: “I hope it’s not Altar of Sorrows with just a new boss at the end because that’s going to suck.” – So, one may say that the players are primarily concerned about receiving the same content rather than new experiences.
Not only the timing of the announcement has cast some shadows over the players’ heads but one of them expressed it in such a way that “Hell yeah nothing like not hearing about the Halloween event halfway through October” – This indicates that perhaps the reveal has been pushed back more than players would want it to be. The length of the seasonal events is another divisive issue as another player mentioned “Seasonal events only lasting for 1 week feels really bad. 2 weeks felt like a good length” implying that the shorter event might not give the players a chance to fully enjoy the content.
But how did I get dragged back into the players’ grievances again? Oh right – the PvP matter. It was instant for the comments to highlight the absence of Crucible updates, one very rude reply being “Nothing about PvP 🤣” and another one quizzing “Where is the pvp love? Any news?”. Unfortunately, this tendency is one that has frequently frustrated the Destiny 2 PvP community who view themselves as the side that gets the least attention compared to the PvE content updates. Moreover, the issue even resulted in a heated debate over player counts and engagement metrics across different game modes.
Technical complications represent the other side of the coin of displeasure among some gamers. One guardian reported that “I don’t know if this is a known issue, but from now on I won’t be able to add items to my vault anymore from my character” and another one was indicating a weapon bug: “It’s been almost 3 weeks and you guys still haven’t even acknowledged that the cusp sempiternal void support frame auto rifle from the epic raid is bugged. Its kill tracker is bugged it doesn’t properly track kills.” Such technical glitches have been, albeit of different natures, a consistent characteristic in the Destiny 2 updates.
On the positive side, the new Call to Arms event is beginning to generate some interest among players, one of them saying: “Thank God, I’ve been waiting for this event to have a PvE and PvP activity. This actually looks good. Hats off to Bungie.” The Creator Hub Epic Raid challenge seems to be uplifting content creators, MrTragicX’s thrilled response of “Thanx brother!! 🙏🏾🤜🏾” to the congratulations about being part of the challenge is a testament to that.
The release of these updates is set against the backdrop of a busy competition from other live services in the case of Destiny 2, and the mood in the community appears rather mixed. The way some gamers talk suggests they are playing the game “in small bursts” rather than as their main game, which could be a sign of wider engagement issues that are not only limited to seasonal events.
BungieLove’s presence at TwitchCon this weekend may prove to be the developers’ way of staying connected to the community while at the same time receiving the critique of various aspects of the game. The progression changes mentioned in the update appear to be minor tinkering instead of major restructurings of the system, still, the exact nature of the modifications was not made clear in the social media announcement.
As the current season progresses, the community’s response to the Festival of the Lost will be crucial in determining whether Bungie’s seasonal content strategy is resonating with players or if it needs to undergo significant changes to keep the engagement alive. The mixture of thrill and irritation in the comments reflects a community that is passionate but more selective than ever before regarding how they spend their gaming time.
The question remains whether or not the seasonal event will be able to turn around the skeptics, but it is already becoming evident that the Destiny 2 community is still very vocal about their expectations from their favorite space magic shooter. PlayStation and Xbox players alike continue to share their feedback.
