Bungie has announced plans to win back player trust by not only making major improvements to Marathon going forward, but also returning to Destiny 2 after having previously stated it was done with the shared-world shooter.
Speaking on the company’s official website, Poria Torkan (Studio Head) and Josh Deane (Marathon General Manager) admitted that the developer has “lost trust” and “lost sight of what we should be prioritising most, our players.”
As a new leadership team, we must own that. We aren’t just listening to feedback, we understand your disappointment. We are not asking you to trust what we say today. We know that trust must be earned through the quality of our games, the decisions we make, and how consistently we show up for our players.
As part of its new strategy, it will be returning to Destiny 2 after confirming players “responded in force” after the release of Moment of Triumph. As part of this move, Bungie will be restoring previous campaigns and locations that were put into the Destiny Content Vault.
We want to return Destiny to its original promise, to recapture the qualities that have always made it special. The awe-inspiring mystery, meaningful discovery, and a community of Guardians coming together against impossible odds. That begins with restoring important parts of Destiny 2’s history that players can no longer experience today. We understand that removing these experiences had a lasting impact on player trust and enjoyment of Destiny.
The studio noted that restoring all this content is “not as simple as restoring old files,” revealing “changes made to Destiny 2 since Beyond Light require us to update lighting, encounters, combatants, and other underlying systems.”
Regarding Marathon, Bungie conceded the game “did not reach as many players as we had hoped, and we also know and understand that the game needs to evolve.”
Through the remainder of Marathon’s first year, we will continue strengthening its combat, world, and competitive tension while giving players more agency in how they engage with the game. That means creating meaningful experiences whether you prefer cooperative PvE, competitive PvP, or the unpredictable tension of Marathon PvPvE. It’s important to us that no matter your playstyle, or your skill level, we find better ways to hear from you as we get back to where we need to be – making games you want to play.
[Source – Bungie]