Iterative software development is by far the best way of delivering lots of features: the old approach of monolithic waterfall delivery is a recipe for disaster, so it's not that surprising that stuff would just get ejected in the desperate push to get the product released on a given date.

Can't fault that reasoning. Expanding on that, I was also pleased to read only a partially evasive answer here. It's perfectly understandable, however, not to commit to any specific game modes.

IBT: Will we see more unique modes like races or oddball?

EO: "It's definitely something our team is interested in. Step one for us was to get a really competent game up and running, making sure it was meeting our expectations and all the modes players demand from their shooters. In the future who knows, we'll be having a lot of fun and there's plenty of opportunity for us to do new stuff."

I know he's basically doing PR, so I can forgive his line of "reasoning" here, but I hope he knows that it's a myopic way to judge the quality of the game.

Common sense would suggest so , hopefully that won't be proven false.

Just because a ton of people played the Crucible during the beta doesn't mean reaction wasn't tepid.

EO: "Well it was actually just one mode out of the game, four maps. We did throw Iron Banner out too. To challenge the tepid reaction, I was actually looking at the data earlier today and people played an absolute metric ton of it. We're able to look at player activities, what they play, how many hours they commit to it and the number of people who played it was pretty humbling.

I know he's basically doing PR, so I can forgive his line of "reasoning" here, but I hope he knows that it's a myopic way to judge the quality of the game.

Tepid reaction by whom? The guy asking the question? Gotta love the passive voice way of denying any agency.

Just because a ton of people played the Crucible during the beta doesn't mean reaction wasn't tepid.

EO: "Well it was actually just one mode out of the game, four maps. We did throw Iron Banner out too. To challenge the tepid reaction, I was actually looking at the data earlier today and people played an absolute metric ton of it. We're able to look at player activities, what they play, how many hours they commit to it and the number of people who played it was pretty humbling.

I know he's basically doing PR, so I can forgive his line of "reasoning" here, but I hope he knows that it's a myopic way to judge the quality of the game.

Hmm. I'd guess he was focusing more on the number of hours played PER PERSON, not just the numbers who jumped in. And while it's true that you could play 16 hours a day for a week and then come away and say "meh" (and some people on this very forum did exactly that)... it's sort of hard to accept the words over the actions.

Bungie could in theory add Ship combat, additional classes or new game types, like a classic firefight style encounter.

Also, I really want a warthog to tool around mars in.

That's how I read it as well. Imagine how exponentially better the game would become with the staggered addition of features like that, not that it isn't great already. Also, bouncy wheeled vehicles, 'nuff said.

With Destiny we wanted to say to ourselves 'let's not do that'. Let's take these plans and incubate that, put it on the backburner, let's give ourselves the ability and flexibility to continue to build and grow and change over time.

Ah, that explains why Destiny has such a great theater/recorder mode.

Your statement actually goes against what he's saying. He is NOT saying that they were aiming to include in Destiny ALL of the features they wanted to put in Destiny. From the statement said by Urk it is very possible that theater mode is "on the backburner." Their goal was actually to be able to build and grow the game over time, unlike Halo games where once the feature-set was out the door, that was it.

In the past on Halo we had a whiteboard with an airplane on it and we'd draw flames on the back of a plane as we came to the end of the project. And out the back of the plane we'd eject all these features which we didn't have time to make. People would lament, they'd go to the board and be like 'Oh man, here's this thing that I really loved and we're just abandoning it.

With Destiny we wanted to say to ourselves 'let's not do that'. Let's take these plans and incubate that, put it on the backburner, let's give ourselves the ability and flexibility to continue to build and grow and change over time.

Ah, that explains why Destiny has such a great theater/recorder mode.

I laughed, hard.
(You should have stopped here.)