When the Destiny Content Vault (DCV) was introduced, it was a way for Bungie to keep the size and scope of Destiny 2 more manageable as additional destinations and campaigns were added. It also allows the team to put away content for some time, bringing it back later both for nostalgia purposes and to support new content. The first major content to be vaulted was the Red War campaign, Destiny 2’s base storyline, as well as multiple destinations from Destiny 2’s first year, including Io, Titan, Mars, Mercury, and the Leviathan.
Given that the story and world state had moved well beyond Ghaul’s invasion of the Last City (and the fact that only a very small fraction of players even engaged with this content anymore), Bungie determined it was time to move on. And sometime in the future, they’ll be doing the same thing with Destiny 2’s first major expansion, Forsaken.
“Forsaken content will be vaulted at some point,” said Justin Truman, General Manager of Destiny 2 in an interview with Eurogamer. “I think in the same way we don’t want eight raids, it’s the same thing with storylines – we don’t want when a new player enters into Destiny, there’s five different competing storylines that they could start playing and in some of them, Uldren’s a good guy, and in some of them he’s a bad guy, and it’s not clear if you’re playing them out of order.”
Truman goes on to explain that the decisions aren’t necessarily made in chronological order of what was the oldest thing added to Destiny 2. After all, even base locations like the EDZ are still in the game and playing a primary part in a lot of the current content. “We’re thinking about it in terms of – which one of these destinations or experiences is doing the least to the overall healthy ecosystem?” Truman said.
Some of the biggest pushback to the idea of Bungie vaulting Destiny content has come as part of the shift from a paid game to a free-to-play experience, and people feeling like Bungie is taking away content that they’ve paid for. For example, will Beyond Light content eventually be going away, even though people just paid for it a few months ago? If it is, it likely won’t be for years yet, and will players even be playing the old Beyond Light content in three years? After all, Forsaken first came out back in fall 2018. If some Forsaken content does leave the game (most likely with The Witch Queen expansion, which was pushed to early 2022), it will be more than three years since its original release, and far removed from the current world state of Destiny 2.
However, Bungie is constantly learning and adapting the content model for Destiny 2. While last year featured Seasons of content that each only lived in the game for around three months before going away, this year is making Seasonal activities persist for the full year until the next expansion. Truman also promises that content coming and going from the DCV is all in the best interest of Destiny 2’s story, ecosystem, and manageable size—both in terms of file size and amount of content that players can engage with.
The full Eurogamer interview with Truman is a great read about the future of Destiny 2 and what Bungie’s goals are with various decisions and activities. It’s well worth a read if you’re interested in where Destiny is headed. Bungie also recently confirmed enormous expansion plans for its studio to expand the capabilities of bringing the Destiny universe to more mediums.
What do you think about the confirmation that Forsaken content will eventually be removed from Destiny 2? When was the last time you played any of the Forsaken content? Let us know your thoughts on things in the comments below.
[Source: Eurogamer]
