Well, let’s talk about ‘Destiny 3’ again

Once again, “Destiny 3” trended all weekend. No news about that, of course, and I think this was started by some fan accounts like “Does anyone else wish Bungie would do a Destiny 3??” And it spiraled from there.

Of course, it’s not unreasonable to think about Destiny 3 right now. Bungie itself has stated that Destiny 2’s long-running Light and Darkness saga will end with The Final Shape next year. And Destiny 2 is a six-year-old game that can only keep up by constantly deleting old content, a rarity in the industry that has angered many fans. But after the acquisition of Bungie by PlayStation, the game is still popular, and more important than ever.

I’ll restate my theory one more time: after Final Shape, I think Destiny 2 itself will have another trilogy of expansions, as Bungie previously hinted that there would be more sagas. Inside Destiny 2 After the struggle of light and darkness. That means the last D2 expansion would, in theory, be around 2027, and would be right on the cusp of a new console generation I believe. And if there is a Destiny 3 (which may not be called Destiny 3) it will launch from there.

There has been a lot of talk about a “new engine” for Destiny 3, with some saying that Bungie should move Destiny to Unreal Engine 5, as has been the recent trend for many games, including Halo, for future projects. But A) engines don’t solve all problems and B) old engines can be greatly upgraded and made into something competitive. Also, if you switch engines, you may have trouble completely recreating the “feel” of the game that players love so much in the first place, which is obviously one of Destiny’s main draws. I’m just saying that not all of the problems with Destiny 2 can currently be reduced to just “the engine” because it’s much more complex than that. Even if yes, a completely new game will include some overhauls, I definitely don’t expect a switch to UE5.

Destiny 3 has pros and cons and how they can be controlled. On the plus side, the “clean slate” approach after 7-10 years or whatever it ends up being again will once again take the game to a place where new players can jump in and not feel literally years behind, and not be told. A bunch of stuff they could never play because it was deleted.

The opposition? If this was a truly clean slate, I’m not sure I’d be keen on starting everything with zero out vaults and four new planets and then spending the next 5-10 years “retracing” everything from Destiny 1 again. And 2 Now. It’s been six years and we’re still pulling back content from Destiny 1, and I especially don’t want to repeat that process with every freak or strike or zone from the last two Destiny 2 games. Either find a way to keep most things and take them to the baseline, or forget them, and not look back often.

Then there is the complete unknown. What will survive the journey in Destiny 3? I would put the entire Gambit game mode on the endangered species list. And while I doubt Bungie will remove PvP entirely, what will happen to all the maps? Will they finally be ready to staff that part of the game by the time Destiny 3 rolls around, or will everyone be deep into their other multiplayer projects by then, one or two of which may have already launched? I do not know.

It seems inevitable that Destiny 2 won’t live forever. But I don’t subscribe to the idea that we’re going to see Destiny 3 wipe the slate clean in 2025 in Unreal Engine 5. It would be a lot less cut and dry than that, and yes, I guess we’ll see. More Destiny 2 expansions for the rest of this console generation, even if the post-final shape is kind of refreshing to the current game.

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Pick My Sci-Fi Novels Herokiller series And The Earthborn Trilogy.