Joe Blackburn, director of Destiny 2, has acknowledged the community’s disappointed over the latest State of the Game update and assured that communication will be improved between the developer and the players.
Via PCGamesN, Blackburn spoke in a video posted to X which was then uploaded to a separate YouTube channel called c0nflicx for “wide-spread dissemination”. Check it out below.
“A couple of weeks ago, we put out a State of the Game communication that wasn’t up to your standards,” said the director. “It didn’t provide the vision that we normally provide, and really and truly a lot of us were heads down in The Final Shape, and weren’t able to give it the care and love that we normally put into these kinds of communications, and that’s nobody’s fault but mine.”
The Final Shape is the conclusion of the game’s Light and Darkness storyline and is expected in early 2024. However, a livestream scheduled for August 22 will share insight on the expansion as well as Destiny 2‘s Season 22.
Blackburn continued to assure players that he will be engaging with the game a lot more and he will be asking for their thoughts on Season 22 in dedicated streams on his own channel. “It’s not going to be reveal packed, but it is a great time to just check in with Joe,” he explained, adding that he would like to “learn from some experts”.
Also, the director clarified that any unmerited attacks on the community management team or other Destiny 2 developers will not be tolerated.
“Our number one priority, we have to keep our community members and our community leaders safe. I don’t want anyone that signs up to come work at Bungie and to talk to you about the game to have to worry about their personal safety,” he said.
As part of this change of course, Destiny 2 will offer new player versus player (PVP) maps in a pack that will be free to download in the future. Blackburn realised that the “slow trickle” of maps didn’t serve the aims of the game, to create exciting and memorable experiences in the world of Destiny 2.
Earlier this year, a Destiny 2 player subjected one of the developers to a “carpet bombing” of “racist text and voice messages”. After Bungie won the lawsuit against them, the court ordered them to pay the company £373,000 in damages.