"Destiny is Not in a good place." (Criticism)

by Korny , Dalton, Ga. US. Earth, Sol System, Wednesday, January 24, 2018, 11:26 (2529 days ago) @ Schedonnardus

"We do think Bungie still has some opportunity to fix the game's problems over the next year and recapture engagement, but we're not sure they have the ability to pull it off at this point," analyst Doug Creutz wrote. "We also note that Destiny currently has more serious competition in its genre from a refurbished Division (Ubisoft) and the indie title Warframe than it did three years ago, when D1 had its own share of player dissatisfaction."

Now there's an analyst who does the research... Some folks these days are content with blaming PUBG.

He said several key "Destiny" video streamers have announced they will reduce content for the game in the future. He noted Twitch viewership for the game is at "franchise-low" levels averaging 4,000 to 7,000 viewers on Friday afternoons versus 14,000 to 17,000 for "Destiny 1" one year ago.

Since they received statements from him, Destiny has dropped under 1000 viewers on Twitch. Sure, it's not a Friday, but it's a continuing sign of decline. Personally, I think this is a good thing, and I've gotten a bit of schadenfreude from the Streamers who have less stuff to exploit, and have to resort to finding new ways to make their viewers find them interesting, but that's a silver lining for another thread.

Creutz also shared four key reasons why he believes the game is faltering:

• 1. "Design decisions were made that have made D2 a less engaging, and less distinctive, game than D1. In particular, key aspects of the D2 end game feel neutered compared to D1."
  
  
• 2. "Microtransaction implementation, while not nearly as problematic as in Star Wars Battlefront 2, has still been a source of player unhappiness."
  
  
• 3. "Bungie's [the studio that developed the game] apparent urgency in responding to player feedback has been disappointing."
  
  
• 4. "Until recently, Bungie did a poor job communicating its road map going forward, particularly compared to the more open stance of many other live service games."

It's really interesting to see that there's plenty of higher-ups over at Activision who are well aware of all of Bungie's current issues, and who are being informed about how they are hurting the bottom line (to the level where it's actually affecting Call of Duty's profit influx). It'll be interesting to see what steps Activision takes. I'd give anything to hear those conversations between them and the Bungie reps...