Before Destiny 2, there was Halo. I played the original Halo on an outdated computer during one of the summer breaks between my semesters. It was 2007; I was back home, with most of my school friends either too far or too busy to go out with. It was too hot anyways, and my brother would still be in school. There is about an hour before lunch will be served. I spent that time role-playing as Master Chief on an old PC, throwing those sticky bombs and cursing every time I had to use my pistol as a sniper rifle.
If these lines are evoking images of you propped on a repurposed dining chair with no armrests, dressed in a vest and shorts, with a study table adorned with a retired table cover (cotton or plastic) positioned in a corner and a beige PC tower (procured on the pretext of studies), a tired mouse with the left button a little off-colored into a fading yellow, an aging CRT along with a dark grey keyboard, and those off-brand off-white semi-mushroom-like speakers on either side (which would start beeping seconds before you got a call on your cell phone), while a ceiling fan idled above you as wind and sunlight streamed in casually from a window, then you know exactly what I mean. It was the time in my life when these things, such as finishing a game in hardcore, meant something to me. When the world was still my oyster, this strong, silent, brooding type was exactly the kind of person I wanted to become.
The year is 2010; Bungie announces that they will be going independent. A lot of people around you don’t care, but you do; you care about them. You wonder how that will go. It’s a brave new world out there, yet unsafe and unprotected. You are getting ready to enter the job market too. You are equal parts excited and apprehensive. You wish them the best of luck and promise to stay in touch. Why not? You have been such a critical part of each other’s lives. You will both get where you want to, together.
It’s 2014 now. Bungie has announced their brand new project called Destiny. It’s supposed to be a first-person shooter in this “semi-shared, always online fantasy meets sci-fi” world. ” I didn’t know what a lot of that meant, to be honest. You are unsure about this Activision deal, but it’s a big payday. So I was here for it. I had just come back from the UK, complete with a shiny new PS4 alongside me. I was employed, single, and living by myself in this strange new city, which was even stranger now because I had been away for a year. Pre-ordering the game and watching it download, getting ready for Day 1, felt more like the night before meeting an old friend after a while. You knew that they were still at their core someone you liked, but so much time had passed. You are different now; they would be different too. Would the two of you still fit? Would it still be the same? Would it be too different? I went to sleep with palpating anticipation.
2016 is here. I am a married gamer now. I have moved in closer to my parents, and now we are planning this big trip across Europe together. We will be visiting Paris, Brussels, and Luxembourg, but the city I am excited for the most is Cologne. It’s Gamescom season. I am excited to represent Gameffine (then IndianNoob) at such a global event for the first time. I am going to meet some of the most influential people in the gaming industry and spend some time in some of the most beautiful architecture you would ever see. The world is opening up and is full of opportunities and potential. It’s only up from here. I met Luke Smith during that week. Highlight of my trip.
It’s 2017. I have a toothache. I have people around me, of course, but “toothache-like heartache” can’t be explained. ” I have to take an extended time off from work for the first time ever. I have too much time on my hands, and I don’t know what to do with it. Especially since I can’t focus on anything for more than 5 minutes. So I play Destiny 2. Over and over, again and again, completing missions, feeling furious at incompetent randos, and just screaming silently into the void. It helped me through a time when I was a miserable person and just wanted to get something done and feel useful.
2018. Forsaken has just come out. Cayde-6, voiced by Nathan Fillion, is saying goodbye to the game for now. There is a quest to get his gun, “The Ace of Spades,” for your character. I am busy, but I am also excited by this pivotal moment in the game. They were with me for mine, so it makes sense for me to be with them for theirs. I come back one more time to say goodbye to a character that I had lost touch with for a while, and I have fun doing it.
2019 is around the corner. You just heard the news that Bungie is going to go independent and split with Activision completely. “Good for them,” you think. Their artistic integrity was getting trampled on by those corporate bullies. You are busy with your own life though. You have moved to this brand new country and have little idea of how everything works. Plus, you have a family of your own now, and ironically, your time is not your own any longer. You promise yourself you will check in soon. But I don’t know when it will be.
It’s 2023. Lance Riddick has just passed away. He voiced Zavala in Destiny 2, among other very influential pop culture media that I have grown up on. I return to the game again to offer my condolences and my wishes in my own special way. It’s like returning to your village for a funeral; you are here for a sad reason, but everything and everyone reminds you of happier, simpler times. You can’t stay for long, though. Life is calling, and you need to get back to it.
2024 reads the calendar. The Final Shape has been released, bringing an end to an arc/story that Bungie started ironically a decade ago. I look at the trailers and see that Fallen are friends now. The Witch Queen is helping us or stabbing us in the back. Cayde is back. I am not so sure how I feel about all of this, but I jump back in. In my mind, it’s only fitting that I am here for the end when I was there for the beginning. And to say goodbye to the lot. Lately, I have been doing a lot of that.
December 2025. Destiny 2 announces Renegades, a Star Wars-inspired expansion. I follow it from the sidelines. I watch the trailers, read the previews, and read some news stories about it. But I don’t jump back in. We are online friends now. Drifting away from periods of inactivity, we stalk each other on social media: me through Instagram and Bungie through emails (I should unsubscribe soon). They are with this new person now (Sony), and you don’t recognize them as well as you did before. Something has changed, but you can’t put your finger on it.
On May 21, 2026, Bungie announced that any new active development on the game has ENDED. June 9, 2026, would be the last live service content update that Destiny 2 would get, ending what is essentially an 8-year life cycle. Almost immediately, the internet flooded with a reflex. People started a campaign to either get Destiny 2 revived or to get an announcement for Destiny 3. Important people in the industry got together and discussed how much of this decision was Sony, how much this is a symptom of the gaming industry, and how much of it was because of Marathon. I saw this as an opportunity to talk about Destiny 2 and get back to something I haven’t done in a while as well. WRITING.
Through the decade and more, I and Bungie and Destiny have been intertwined in patterns that can only be explained and observed if you were me. The Bungie of today resembles nothing of the Bungie of before, and yet there is something that Luke Smith said to me at Gamescom that has stayed with me; something that may help us better understand this phase in Bungie’s legacy:
“Most of the people that worked on Halo are gone. We are still Bungie though.”
