After wrapping a decade-long story, Bungie reflects on Destiny 2's rocky year, player decline, and how the Star Wars-inspired Renegades expansion could turn things around. Read on for more details and thoughts from the lead developers from Bungie.
For nearly a decade, Destiny 2 has been a pillar of the live-service genre. But following the conclusion of its long-running Light and Darkness saga, the game has struggled with player retention, engagement, and the challenges of keeping a live-service game exciting in its second decade.
Now, ahead of the upcoming Renegades expansion, Bungie’s leadership is addressing those struggles and how they want to fix them head-on.
With the release of The Final Shape in 2024, Bungie concluded the Light and Darkness saga an ambitious, years-long narrative arc that had anchored the Destiny universe since its inception in 2014. While critically praised as a satisfying narrative finale, it created an unintended problem: many players saw it as the natural conclusion to their journey and started to drop off very quickly.
Game director Tyson Green put it bluntly stating:
"The Final Shape brought things to a crescendo… People were pleased and satisfied with what they played, and then the big [downward] spike in population [came after]. That happened because we ended the saga. So you get what you pay for, right?"
This population drop, combined with controversial changes to power progression introduced in the Edge of Fate expansion, led to one of the toughest years in Destiny 2’s history. Players pushed back hard against grind-heavy systems that made progression feel more punishing than rewarding.
Learning From the Mistakes of Edge of Fate
Edge of Fate, launched in July 2025, attempted to kickstart the next major arc dubbed the "Fate Saga" but its steep grind, unfriendly power resets, and unclear narrative failed to attract newcomers or reinvigorate the community.
Green was also candid about the misstep:
"It sounds great on paper, but it didn’t work… We’ve been taught a bunch of hard lessons about what our players want."
He emphasized that Destiny 2 cannot afford to be a passive live-service game that ignores its community.
"There are really two kinds of live games: those that listen to the players and respond, and those that don’t. And we don’t want to be a dead live game."
Which brings us to today with Renegades, the next major expansion. Inspired by Star Wars and Western-style space revenge tales, Renegades represents a major creative and structural pivot for the franchise. It’s the first run of Bungie’s new model: two mid-sized expansions per year, each with focused campaigns and seasonal content.
According to Green, this approach allows the team to experiment more and respond faster to feedback:
"One of the advantages that the new release model gave us… means you can experiment more within those individual expansions."
Renegades introduces a darker tone, blaster weapons, lightsaber-like "Praxic Blades," and a revamped faction system. Bungie is aiming to recapture the same excitement that made 2018’s Forsaken expansion so beloved.
The expansion is also making good on its promise to rework progression, focusing less on arbitrary numbers and more on meaningful gear and customization systems for players.
Looking To The Games Future, Not Back
Creative director Ben Wommack believes Destiny must reexamine every boundary even long-standing franchise rules if it hopes to stay relevant:
"It’s tempting to stick to those conventions… but the truth is that you need to re-examine all of them… especially when working with Lucasfilm."
While it’s still uncertain whether Renegades can win back lapsed players in large numbers, early impressions suggest a more focused, generous, and narratively rich experience. We will see if it works next month.
As Destiny 2 enters its next era, Bungie is clearly betting on innovation, responsiveness, and a willingness to break its own rules. Whether that’s enough to revitalize the player base remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: Bungie isn’t giving up.
"We still want to keep making Destiny," Green says. "There are still lots of things to do… and we have to keep building the game."
For fans who are excited for the upcoming expansion, the wait is nearly over as Renegades arrives in just a few a days on December 2nd, 2025! Stay tuned for more details as they come.
What are your thoughts on the developers words? Do you think this expansion will be enough to bring players back? Let us know what you are thinking in the comments section down below!