Destiny 2 was never going to last forever, but that's what made it special

Bungie’s decision to end Destiny 2 live service updates once more raises the question of whether the format’s benefits are worth the limits.

Destiny 2 comes to an end on Tuesday June 9, with the launch of the Moment of Triumph update. Bungie promises that the FPS will remain live and playable for the foreseeable future, with changes planned "to ensure that Destiny 2 is a welcoming place for players to return to." That overhaul will be its final 'content update,' however, and the decision once again calls into question the very nature of the live-service format, and the inherent inevitability of loss that it perpetuates. Rather than get locked into the negatives, however, I want to take a moment to embrace what Destiny and its sequel get so right.

Nine years ago, back when Destiny 2 launched, there was a part of me already bemoaning the fact that its predecessor had evolved so much, leaving my precious memories as dust in the wind. That first year of Destiny - despite being full of criticism, and for good reasons - was a refuge I found myself spending many hundreds of hours with. Those early forays into the Vault of Glass forged lifelong friendships with people I still speak to almost every day, and countless individual moments from our escapades remain burned into my memory over a decade on.

The Vault of Glass is ostensibly still playable - it even made its way into Destiny 2 in 2021 - but it's not the same encounter I spent all that time with. Destiny evolved over its lifespan, largely for the better, but in doing so it changed forever, leaving me unable to return to the game as I'd first fallen in love with it. Destiny 2's longer tail follows much the same story. Growing and expanding, adapting for better and worse, twisting almost beyond recognition at times, and eventually ending up as something fundamentally similar yet ultimately entirely different.

Like its predecessor, I put hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours into Destiny 2 in its early days - first on console, and then starting from scratch on PC when that version arrived. I would eventually move on to other things, and each time I found myself answering the call to return I was met with the same conundrum. A map screen full of notifications. Characters that needed to catch up to whatever the current power level was. A vault filled with dusty exotics, once lovingly gathered, that largely didn't do anything for me in the modern meta.

Do I regret those hours spent, knowing that? Not at all. The nature of live service is inherently ever-shifting, ever-changing, but ultimately that impermanence is part of what makes it special. Not because each era is limited and no-one can experience it again, but because each is a definitive moment in time, shared by everyone who plays it.

I can sit in the park with friends of mine, the way we did a decade ago. It evokes memories of those long-lost hours, but it isn't the same. The flowers, trees, buildings, and paths are different. Our lives have changed, and as anyone who's grown older can tell you, sometimes your own 'build,' once honed to optimal performance, feels like it's in need of fresh work. Before I get too lost in my own wistful metaphor, I'll simply say that I treasure those memories made in Destiny in much the same way.

I won't say I agreed with every move Bungie made over the course of Destiny 2's lifespan. While I understood the decision to 'vault' certain parts of the game and cram players into more condensed content, it was part of what pushed me away. I'm also a long-time Final Fantasy 14 player, and Square Enix has done an incredible job of keeping its old expansions viable and active, rewarding players for running classic dungeons and trials with newcomers.

Still, this wasn't quite how I expected everything to end. The writing seemed to be on the wall for a while, and I certainly don't begrudge Bungie for putting more resources into Marathon despite extraction shooters being less up my alley. In fact, for the last few years I've been hoping Bungie would rip the band-aid off and call time on Destiny 2, although in my mind it was always as a way to push into a fresh start; a sequel that would entice me and my formerly Destiny-loving friends fully back into the mix.

It's unclear if that's part of the plan. While Bungie's blog post mentions beginning "work incubating our next games," Bloomberg's Jason Schreier reports that "Bungie doesn't plan to immediately enter production on a Destiny 3." Schreier also cites sources "familiar with the studio's plans" as claiming the developer is "planning a significant number of layoffs" in the wake of Destiny 2's grand finale.

Will we ever get full closure on the Hive? Xivu Arath, the God of War and youngest sibling to major antagonists Savathûn and Oryx, has long been the expected frontrunner for a potential future arc. Robert Brookes, a former Senior Narrative Designer at the studio who left in 2024 and later joined Cyberpunk developer CD Projekt Red, responds to a post from X user 'LukeCB14' asking about such a plan: "You'd be surprised how many times this was pitched for D2."

Maybe one day, Bungie will tell that story, whether it's through Destiny 3 or some other future project. Perhaps it never comes. Either way, I'll continue to treasure those memories I made over the years, and be thankful for the studio that brought them to life. Destiny 2: Moment of Triumph launches on Tuesday June 9. I might even boot it up in the future, and take another walk around the digital parks we once called home.