Destiny 2: The Video Game I Love From A Studio I Cannot Trust

 If asked what my favourite console video game is, the answer is easily Destiny 2.  In its first two years of release, I racked up a shameful amount of hours of game play.  I also spent a lot of money on all of the content offered in those first two years.  Released in 2017, it is still going strong, with expansions each year and lots of seasonal content.  As much as I love that game, and want to start playing it again, there is a massive reason why it isn't an easy decision to make.

The problem is that Bungie, the studio behind Destiny 2 and the creators of Halo, has deleted from the game almost everything I have paid for.  Before I get into that, I will break down the dollars that have been thrown at this video game.  The base game was $80, with two DLCs following that were $30 each (at least from what I can remember).  Then there was the Forsaken expansion in 2018 that was another $50.  After that, there were three seasons costing about $20 each.  The total amount spent in those first two years of release is a mighty $250, much more than anything I've spent on a game before or since.

From Bungie's perspective, they were running into a problem.  The game was swelling and getting massive, and apparently there were technical issues with some of the older content.  I'm possibly wrong about some of the facts, as a lot of time has passed.  Anywho, what Bungie decided to start going was putting older content in a 'vault.'  Whatever term they use, the fact is that from a consumer's point of view, the content was being deleted and taken away from them.

So, what has been vaulted?  The entire original campaign, the first two DLCs, the three seasons worth of content, and (in just over a month) the campaign from the Forsaken expansion, and one of its two maps.  Not only did the entire original campaign disappear, but most of the available locations that could be played.  Maps were 'vaulted' (deleted), and if I turned on my PlayStation, I would have access to almost none of what I had paid money for.

I understand that making a full sequel would be very demanding work, and that they want to instead be a 'live service' game that just builds on what they have already done.  The problem is that, as a paying customer, their solution has robbed me of what I have paid for.  This is the only time this has happened to me.  Even games I purchased back in the early 2000s are still playable with the game systems and disks.  They may no longer have updates, but I can still revisit the base game and enjoy it.

To be honest, not only am I pissed off at Bungie, I have absolutely no trust in them whatsoever.  If I were to get back into Destiny 2, I would have to throw down a lot more money to get the different expansions that came from the past few years.  Money is really tight these days, and I don't want to have to spend another hundred dollars or so just to get back into the game I used to love.  Some would argue that the base Destiny 2 game has become 'free to play,' but that includes almost no content. 

Besides not wanting to have to pay more money just to play a game I already spent over two hundred dollars on, I worry that anything I did purchase now would end up being deleted in the future.  There are many game studios that I dislike.  EA is one of them, a studio that will do whatever they can to make you spend more and more money on their games in a despicable way.  However, EA hasn't made any of my purchases unplayable.  I can still pop in my disk of NHL 16 and get the experience I had paid for.  I really dislike EA as a company, but I'm still able to play the games I purchased.

Apparently, Bungie will soon be releasing some content from their vault.  Will it be campaign or anything else that I paid for?  Well, it seems they are rereleasing a raid from the deleted content and two PVP maps.  Yep, that's it.  I find it shocking that they seem to think this is something people should be excited about when they have deleted hundreds of dollars worth of player investment.

One argument could be that I got more than my money's worth out of what I did pay for, which is true.  The same could be said of any of my guitars.  I have logged hundreds of hours on each of them, however I don't have to worry about Fender showing up and telling me I need to give them a guitar back.  Digital content and rights is a weird thing, but I don't believe that something purchased should be deliberately taken away.

Bungie may have good reasons for deleting content, but that's from a developer perspective.  My reality is that they have taken both my money as well as what I had paid for.  Should I dust off my PS4, there's next to nothing that represents the dollars I spent.  As much as I want to jump back in and play the game, there is no reason why myself or any other gamer out there should trust Bungie.  You can't just erase what people have spent money on and expect them to be somehow appreciative that they are still producing new content.  Anyways, that new content is probably destined to be deleted at some point as well.