Do we all care about Destiny again, then? It’s been a solid six months since we last wrote about the first-person shooter here on Push Square, but we should probably feign some enthusiasm now developer Bungie is a Sony subsidiary, right? Right?! We’re confident all 10 of you who actually read this article will be screaming in unison.
As it turns out, $3.6 billion gets you a pretty popular game, with pre-orders of Destiny 2’s new Witch Queen expansion surpassing one million pre-orders. It’s due out on 22nd February, so there’s still plenty of time for that number to rise – and now we’re all fans of the franchise again here at Push Square, it’s looking like boss Jim Ryan has made a seriously shrewd investment.
The Witch Queen, then: what is it? Well, it’s definitely not called the Witch King, as we’ve already checked and triple-checked that. You come for quality journalism, and we’re happy to uncover the facts for you!
Seeing as we know more about astrophysics than this expansion, here’s the official blurb: “Savathûn has gifted her soldiers with the powers of the Light. As the Knight you’ve struck down rises from the dead for the second time, a feeling of betrayal washes over you and you can’t help but wonder: when the Light offers no shelter – no solace – where will you turn?”
Zzzz… We tried, readers – we really, really tried.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 56
Do you reckon part of the $3.6 billion was Jim Ryan and Hermen Hulst pre-ordering one million copies of the Witch King?
I can picture Jim Ryan now rubbing his hands together Smiling.
It's me or you @LiamCroft. One of us is reviewing Destiny expansions for the rest of time.
@4kgk2 Somehow the typo makes that a much much better image.
I can't talk much cause I play League for like 7 years or so...but I'll be damned if I understand people that still play Destiny 2. The game lasted a week for me lol
Jim Ryan’s week just got ten times better lol
@nessisonett thank you I fixed it lol 😂.
@AFCC
It is a huge misconception among gamers that Destiny is a dead or flop game. It actually has millions of active players on a daily basis on all platforms even after 7 years. People have thousands of hours in the game. I have 4,000 hours in Destiny but people have up to 12,000 hours. You can find a match for any activity instantly including both PvE and PvP. The game has just amazing gameplay, graphics, soundtrack, story, and lore.
I... Need to change my vote, before Jim sees. Clearly he sees all, because none of us saw this coming.
Can I change my vote?
Guys?
My vote?
@OneWingedAngel I agree with everything you just said about the game. But I walked away after 1000s of hours invested due to their monetization and the fact the game felt like a chore to play, almost like a job, where I had to log in and do bounties to progress
I have a love-hate relationship with Destiny. I think it's extraordinary to play, but the way Bungie runs it now (especially with sunsetting paid content) has completely put me off of going back to it.
@Ryguy2784
I agree with you on that. Live service games and MMOs often begin to feel like a chore and a job if you are not careful and get obsessed with all the dailies, weeklies and grinding. I am too on a break for the past few months until the release of Witch Queen.
I assumed Bungie had moved on to something else because they didn't want to just be known as those guys that only make Destiny, guess not they are ride or die Destiny and beyond 🤷
@Juanalf Bungie does have a new IP in development, but it could still be a while until it's announced. Not sure anyone knows how far along it actually is.
@RBMango
That is one of my biggest pet peeves with Destiny: the vaulting of existing content! I paid for that content and I should be able to access it whenever I want! Unfortunately, they have it mentioned in the terms and conditions that they can remove any content they want and we agree to it when buying the game so it is within their legal rights. My second major complaint with the game is the crazy amount of recycling and reskinning with weapon/armor models and enemy design.
¯(ツ)/¯
Next acquisition Better be a RPG Developer they need that
¯(ツ)/¯
@Ridwaano Larian Studios Would Be a Good One.
I still feel like he's the uninvited guest that showed up.
Currently 8th in the top 10 played games on steam right now with nearly 60,000 players on steam an hour ago so the game still is quite active. DLC will bump that figure up and I will jump back in for the first time in over a year to play it.
They need to add more content regularly though as all the DLC's can be completed within a week and takes months for new stuff to get added
Also just did a quick search and bungie have over 900+ employees, now surely destiny doesn't have that many people working on it otherwise we would be getting DLC monthly.
Surprisingly great considering Destiny 2 was considered a disappointment sales wise wasn't it? Definitely turned it around I guess
I mean, one positive for destiny fans is that they can maybe start expecting collaborations with Sony franchises. Maybe armors themed after them or even weapons from the games could be cool.
I play Destiny 2 but man I hate giving money to someone like Bungie with how crappy and greedy their monetization is.
@OneWingedAngel
I can speak to the soundtrack part. I played the game back when Destiny 2 first launched and haven't played it since finishing the original content. I STILL occasionally listen to the soundtrack.
@UltimateOtaku91 "Also just did a quick search and bungie have over 900+ employees"
That's almost as much as Naughty Dog and Insomniac combined! Didn't realize Destiny required allot more hands on deck than Fortnite 😅
Destiny is one of those games that I really enjoyed at launch, but never felt like returning to after that initial excitement wore off.
On the other hand, some of the friends I made in the game have kept playing Destiny 2 since that came out. Sure they'll play the occasional Division or Anthem for a few weeks, but then its back to Destiny. So I don't doubt Sony gets a lot of very dedicated fans along with their acquisition.
Sammy the negative spin you put on e.v.e.r.y article is really starting to wear thin. Can you go watch a sunrise or something and fall back in love with life again.
They overpaid, this a dying studio. Halo is dead and destiny won't make its development money back on Number 3 I reckon. People will expect too much and the game will be too like part 2 and there will be something better come along so we will see the player base jump ship to the new shiny game.
Well that's 60,000,000 or so million back for Sony
Was it free or something?
This does next to nothing to cancel out the 3.6 billion Sony is spending. 3600 million -40 million preorders = 3560 million. Drop in the bucket. And your now paying salaries and business overhead. Anyways good that there is interest in Destiny.
Hate live service games once the servers are shut down the game is just gone , apparently when this new expansion releases another paid campaign will become inaccessible 👎🏻
It's a game I honestly forget exists. My brain's filed it away with series no one talks about anymore like Micro Machines or Baten Kaitos.
@Jaz007 60 million million? That's 6 thousand billion!
Well apparently this 5 year old game has more active players than Halo Infinite (released less than 6 months ago), it’s strange how the general gaming media paint a very different picture of what is actually happening 🤔
It’s funny that at PS4 launch a few people thought Destiny was on PlayStation only. I m not into FPS but I hope they move on to a new IP soon because I’m a bit tired of Destiny this Destiny that which Push is going to report on even more now haha
@OneWingedAngel I really don't get the appeal of live service games. I really love completing games and moving onto the next one. I loved the original Division and the second one to an extent, but when the credits roll and/or I have earned the platinum, I'm done.
@Denni5m Bungie is clearly not a dying studio. Sony can certainly make the money back that they invested, so to that extent they didn't really overpay. I expect Bungie to go from strength to strength with Sony.
@ShogunRok I’ll let you have first dibs my friend!
@Denni5m that's some amazing insight and analysis right there !
Halo certainly isn't dead, Infinite was the best selling Halo since 3, despite being on GamePass and Halo has nothing to do with Bungie now anyway !
A dying studio ??...did you read the article ?
I didnt know the game had a ps5 upgrade with 120hz mode..I will try some crucible matches again and be smoked as always.
They have sunsetted the Witch King haven't they? I still think it is crazy how much content people paid for has been permanently removed. Saying that I feel off Destiny a long time ago. I will be interested to see what Bungie have coming out after Destiny, its hard to recommend anyone who is not a Destiny faithful tries to get into it at this point.
I mean this looks impressive and it could get bigger with Sony's backing. They will likely have an advisory role impact on other games released by Sony.
Also there have been terrible games this site had to review. Not sure reviewing the occasional expansion for Destiny would be as bad as those lol. Not that I'm a Destiny fan but there clearly are a lot of fans for this game.
I never understood why Bungie never got much backlash for taking away content. I have spent just shy of £100 on Destiny 2 and would guess only 5% of what I purchased will be playable in a couple of months thats scandalous.
A lot of people myself included thought Activision was the problem but they got 10 times worse after they split. If sony isn't bringing Bungie in house and changing there monetisation policies this is a terrible waste of money.
Not even sure what the third options was... but like a moth to flame...
@Heyfunnyguyrighthere
I cant see how Destiny 3 would be a terrible idea its exactly what they need to get rid of the broken game engine Destiny 1 and 2 are working on which has been widely reporting takes up to 12 hours to change one small thing on a map. I am sorry its more then a shame they remove stuff, its scandalous that people who have purchased the game cant play what they paid for and its not replaced with anything else unless they pay more money. At the moment Bungies monetisation practices and business model is worse then anything EA or Activision have done.
I got back into Destiny 2 at the end of November and it's been a blast playing all of the stuff I missed from the past year. I'm one of those players that pre-ordered the upcoming expansion and I'm very excited for it! It's been amazing on the PS5.
I ordered the full dlc with the 4 seasons, 2 dungeons and 30th anniversary pack. I really don't know why considering it's lucky if i play 3-4 hours a week on it. It still came out as my most played game on the 2021 roundup though!!!
It's funny how we act like Destiny 2 isn't a big deal for PlayStation and have a "who cares" mentality when it is frequently in the top 5 most played games on PS5 and never outside of the top 10. I bought a PS5 thinking Sony would release great games for it in the first year, when I came to find that in my view, the PS5 version of D2 was and still is the best game available for the system. I'm not alone in this thinking, as the sales figures reflect. I think the Bungie acquisition was very smart and will prove to be a much bigger deal than people now realize.
@LiamCroft @ShogunRok That's pretty dire, but let's take a moment to think of PJ who will have to review CoD until he's buried.
Maybe will start caring about Destiny when Luke Smith (current game director) is fired from his position.
@OneWingedAngel It's dropped from 160k avg concurrent Steam players initially to 50k now. Yes, it is popular, but it's an old game that will keep losing players. DLCs effects on reversing the trend are only temporary.
This article seems waaaaay too personal, Just accept it dude, players with mouse control are always going to own you in PVP...
BTW Destsony is great bye!!
; P
I couldn't care less, never been a fan of Halo/Destiny or Bungie.
If you are new to the series and want to jump in, where's the best place to start?
Nice to know 1.2 of those 3.6 billion are towards the people actually making the games.
Regarding Destiny, I played it back when Forsaken released but never really got hooked.
@arsmolinarc Technically all of it: 1.2 is going to staff retention, which the rest goes into growing the team (not sure how big a team you need for maintaining one mature game, working on one unannounced game, and consulting for other teams in Sony, given they already have 900 people)
@KingPev I'm not talking in terms of money making because they obviously kill it with destiny. But in terms of making games we actually want to play I think they are dead, they will keep turning the screws on these destiny games and then eventually no one will want to play it anymore in a few years and the studio will be disbanded because they have nothing else to offer.
Your welcome for my insight, Ask me anytime. 😀
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