To say that the Destiny franchise has had a tumultous history would be a massive understatement. Its sequel found in Destiny 2 seemed to repeat a lot of mistakes that the first game ran into where players felt it was massively underdelivered only for a notable turning point to turn it all around. For Destiny, that turning point was Taken King and for Destiny 2 that was Forsaken and their very public split from Activision.
It seems like for years we couldn’t write a single Destiny article without the comments being flooded with threats to the writer and a multitude of “dead game” comments. Well, for a dead game it’s done really well because the franchise is the second-best in the FPS franchise in USD since it first launched back in 2014 according to the NPD.
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep launches tomorrow. Since its debut in Sept ’14, Destiny is the #2 best-selling FPS franchise in U.S. dollar sales, trailing only Call of Duty. Destiny is also the 7th overall best-selling franchise in tracked sales in that period. Source: The NPD Group pic.twitter.com/z66MccNp0G
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) September 30, 2019
The team over at Bungie recently turned an entirely new leaf with their Shadowkeep and First Light updates as well as the migration over from Battle.net to Steam. Though a small portion of players have voiced their displeasure by saying the story seems disjointed, overall the feedback has been remarkably positive with the industry and gaming community alike showering the studio with congratulatory messages.
The “dead game” rhetoric took off when Bungie was having a very rough time with their game reception. The backlash was understandable with the seemingly lack of endgame content and proven content locked behind paywalls. It was a rough road but the studio never gave up and implemented hundreds of massive changes leading up to the Activision split that gave them total freedom. Bungie definitely pulled a No Man’s Sky in terms of turning that perception around, and it will be interesting to see where they go next with this renewed vigor for the Destiny franchise .
Destiny 2 Shadowkeep is available now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC through Steam.
