Bungie Weekly Update - 09/12/2014

This week at Bungie, we launched Destiny. It was a long-awaited entry in a long list of firsts.

"Ping [IP address redacted for security reasons]. If you get replies, you're hitting the data center edge. It's alive."
      -Steve Lopez, Bungie Infrastructure Director
March 27th, 2013

That was the first evidence that Destiny had a backbone. More than a year ago, a few ones and zeroes immortalized our first step into a world that would be shared (and protected) by heroes. Suddenly, it's a place that is home to millions of Guardians.

Every single developer at Bungie has people in their lives who have been asking: "So, when this game is out, will you be taking some time off?"

For many of us, the answer is "No way!"

No victory laps. No vacations. Every ending is also a beginning. Now that so many of you have arrived in the Tower, the real work begins. You're in our world, and we intend to make that a place you'll want to return to for a long time to come. Perhaps you've seen those first seeds being planted.

And we haven't forgotten those of you who have yet to connect.

"We have Top Men working on it right now."

That's a phrase we have fun with when we refer to the people who troubleshoot the issues that lie between an anxious Guardian and the beginning of their adventure. Sure, the quote betrays the diversity of our team, but it conjures up images of shadowy figures that curate dangerous treasures.

When you look up "Top Men" in the Bungie dictionary, the definition reads:

"See Zach Russell."

There he is, as he was at 5:00 AM Pacific on Tuesday, September 9th, monitoring the Destiny network as the doors swung wide. Zach is an unsung hero of such decisive action that we don't have a single pic of him that isn't obscured by the blur of his fierce motion.

Zach is a guy who loses sleep when you can't play - him and many like him. He's the guy who hunts the IT guy on your college campus and chases down the manufacturers of devices that think your Destiny network traffic is an act of cyber-piracy. In fact, if you're blocked on a university campus, it's a safe bet that we're about to announce a fix. At that point, we'll begin the search and rescue mission for the rest of you. Progress.

Launching a game into orbit around the Internet is always met with some turbulence. We see the chatter online. There are millions of you who are like this right now:

At the same time, there are also some of you who are still waiting for your own personal blast-off. Don't lose heart, friends. People like Zach (Top. Men.) are like this right now:

Guardians are hunting Fallen, Hive, Vex, and Cabal. At the same time, Bungie is hunting centipedes, cattle, and all of the other nasty creatures that keep people on the ground. Keep talking to us. We'll keep working for you.

Meanwhile, in the wild...

For those of you who are playing Destiny, there are already new reasons to sign in and choose a character. Yesterday, we produced a weather forecast for the storm of action that we'll be raining down on your masked faces.

Since the whispers of impending challenges took the wind, we've activated Salvage. It's live, and it will be all weekend long. This combat scenario is built for a Fireteam of three. Before you and two trusted friends enter the Crucible, help yourself to some pro-tips from Design Lead Lars Bakken:

Salvage is an intense competitive mode on our small and medium sized maps. Kills still matter, but the objective is the most important thing. Multiple relics litter the map at round start. A few seconds into the match, one is chosen at random. The first team to reach the chosen relic launches a probe and must defend it for forty five seconds. If your team successfully defends it, every team member gets a big score increase. We hope you enjoy it. Good luck, Guardians.

Need something more challenging? The race to be the first to complete the Raid in Destiny begins this Tuesday. As soon as it's September 16th somewhere in the world, the Vault of Glass will accept challengers. Assemble your Fireteam now. You'll need to work together. You'll need to be mighty, and brave.

We'll be watching.

Nothing like a shared celestial event to interrupt regular postal service.

We don't need a Mail Sack on launch week to hear what you have to say about Destiny. For the time being, the most important questions are the ones that are being asked here.

If you've begun your adventure, Bungie thanks you.

If you're waiting for yours to begin, Bungie is working tirelessly for you.

We're thrilled to be starting the next phase of the journey. We're just getting started.

Talk to you next week, if we don't see you in the Tower first.