Why is every blockbuster video game now some kind of live service game? Speaking as a clueless idiot, the explanation I find most convincing is that it's an attempt to bridge the gap between the returns publishers want from video games, versus how much we're able or willing to pay upfront. "Triple-A" projects now cost exorbitant sums to develop, partly thanks to wider economic inflation, but also because publishers have spent decades teaching players that every sequel has to be More and Shinier. Premium game prices have not risen in proportion, and investors want growth, as they do.
Live service games sneak around this difficulty by dragging out the time we spend playing them. Whether premium or free-to-play, they seek to install themselves as habits by means of regular, planned updates and additions. This is time that can be monetised by way of a subscription model, time in which other products may be sold to you, like skins and paintjobs, and time that becomes a commodity in itself, "engagement", which can be transmuted and exploited to various end. I'm not sure it's ever been expressed this way in any press release boast about longevity, but the unspoken principle/logical extrapolation seems to be that ideally, a live service game should keep us plugged in and plugging away till we die.
]]>Destiny 2 and Marathon studio Bungie are the next video game giant to be caught up in 2023’s brutal industry-wide wave of layoffs, as an undisclosed number of job cuts hit the veteran developer today.
]]>The original Destiny storyline opened following the collapse of a vast Terran civilization at the hands of an invading, amorphous Darkness and its various alien accomplices - an advance stymied only by a benevolent Big Dumb Object known as the Traveller. It cast you as an ancient warrior, resurrected by a flying robot to reclaim humankind's old dominions together with their antique, storied weapons and gear. So much of its appeal for me, back in 2014, was the mystique of that reclamation process, bolstered by alternately zany, obnoxious, fragmentary or intriguing writing that expanded upon the viral mythological element in Halo.
Fast-forward nine years, and Destiny 2 has turned the destruction and loss of history wrought by the Darkness into a seasonal - or as it's shortly to become, "episodic" - content "cadence" (a term that stems from the Latin word for falling) of erosion and restoration, with areas, weapons and quests stripped periodically from the game due to a mixture of technical pressures and commercial priorities. It's sort of become the very thing you're fighting, but where the Darkness aims to engulf and extinguish the Guardians of the Light, Destiny wants to keep you engaged.
]]>Having spent several weeks with space orbs and triangles, Liam and I have returned from our intergalactic escapades with a spot of news: Inventory Space episode two is a go! It's a video series in which we spend our precious free time with live service games to see how much they demand from our schedules, and whether we're truly able to experience the best of them without crumbling to dust.
So, please join us, as we tackle Bungie's FPS behemoth Destiny 2. Was it worth our time? And crucially, is it worth yours?
]]>On this week's episode of the Ultimate Audio Bang, we turn our attention to shooters and their demands. They all want our undivided attention and for Hayden and I, it's fast becoming a bit much. Believe it or not, we're adults with clothes to fold and ovens to pre-heat! Daily quests and inane challenges aren't bringing us back, if anything, they're beginning to drive us away.
]]>Earlier this month, several Destiny 2 videos created by fans were removed from YouTube due to the filing of DMCA takedown notices. Bungie tweeted that they weren't responsible, but that they were "aware of a series of copyright takedowns" and were actively investigating. Some of their own videos had also been taken offline.
Now Bungie have filed a lawsuit in Washington against ten John Does, hoping to make an example of those who filed the "fraudulent" takedown notices.
]]>On Friday, a report into Bungie's work culture unearthed allegations of racism, sexism, discrimination, toxic leadership and more besides. Current and former employees of the Destiny developers claim they've experienced "overt sexism, boys' club culture, crunch, and HR protection of abusers, as well as more complex stories of microaggressions, systemic inequalities, and difficulties in being heard". CEO Pete Parsons has since issued an apology "on behalf of everyone at Bungie", acknowledging that the studio needs to listen to these accounts, and do better.
]]>On this week's episode of Ultimate Audio Bang, Imogen shares some juicy news nuggets with us. Splitgate – a Halo meets Portal FPS – seems to have garnered some serious interest. Naturally, both of us haven't played it. Sounds cool, though. Elsewhere Halo Infinite's doing a thing this weekend, which we also aren't playing. To be fair, we're waiting for John Masterchief's invite. And just to round things off, Apex Legends has a new character, while PUBG might be going free-to-play. It's a stacked one, folks.
]]>It's been a tough weekend for a lot of people. And there's a tough season coming up, too. Despite Saint Nick's PRs working over time to make us all cheerful, Christmas can actually be a sad and stressful time, can't it?
Listen: it’s ok to be sad. It's fine. You feel what you feel. So, I asked the RPS hivemind what their gaming happy places were, so we could all share them together. They might turn out to be places you'd like to visit too.
]]>After a little over eight years, Bungie are to split from publisher Activision and take the Destiny series of online shooters with them. Bungie say that this includes transferring full publishing rights back to themselves. Whether this means anything for players purchasing and launching the game via Battle.net is yet unknown, but they state in their announcement that "Bungie and Activision are both committed to making sure the handoff is as seamless as possible". For players right now this means very little, but I'm curious to see if this leads to any change in Destiny 2's business model.
]]>During yesterday's EA’s press conference for E3 (which seemed at times like an hour-long apology for microtransactions) we saw a bit more of Anthem, the upcoming shooter from BioWare. The sliced-together footage followed a multiplayer run through the jungles and rock-pools of the world, ending when the four "freelancers" in robot suits encountered a large insect who eats cameras. But I’ve been braving the LA sunshine and got to see an unedited (or rather, less-edited) version of the same level. I didn’t get to play it, sadly. But I did get to see what happened to that big insect after the camera cut out. They shot it. A lot.
]]>Alice is on holiday and she's taken all the games with her. Luckily some developers released new games after she'd left, so the rest of us still have something to play. Our choices are below, but we want to know from you: what are you playing in this weekend of plenty?
]]>“There is no greater love,” sang the late Amy Winehouse, “than what I feel for shooting hostile robots in their glowing stomachs.” If you also can’t get enough of sci-fi space shooting, then you’ll be happy to learn that Destiny 2 [official site] can be pre-loaded now. That’s a whole five days ahead of its release on October 24. On top of that, here’s the exact times you can start playing. Activision aren’t taking any chances, are they?
]]>A new trailer for Destiny 2's [official site] PC beta has arrived and like so much of the marketing, it's nodding at all your PC's most powerful components in a suggestive fashion: "With that kind of equipment, I can go full 4K with an uncapped framerate." Even though the game itself is coming to PC later than console, as is the beta which arrives August 29th, it plans to use the extra time to really preen itself. Pre-order and you can join the beta a day early, but it'll open up worldwide on the 29th, through the recently rebranded Blizzard.Battle/NothingButNet.
Speaking of BattleNet, Bungie recently reiterated that there are no plans to release Destiny 2 anywhere else on PC. "We're with Blizzard", says Bungie community manager DeeJ.
]]>Bungie’s live show of dancing lights and bullets has ended, so let’s look at what we’ve learned about Destiny 2 [official site]. Story-wise, the Guardians have been ousted from their comfortable penthouse suite by a surprise attack and are scattered across the solar system, having lost all their powers. On top of that, the giant Christmas tree decoration they call the Traveler has been stolen. It’s your job to “get the band back together”. You’ve got some new character powers, multiplayer modes and the ability to join clans. You’ll also be touching down on new planets, where you can shoot hundreds of bullets into bad things. But there’s a new trailer below, for a taste of all that.
In more irksome news, it's going to be exclusive to Blizzard's game launcher, the Digital Distribution Platform Formerly Known As Battle.net. That means no Steam release or other storefront. Thanks, Activision. Thactivision.
]]>All right, destinerds, settle down. Since its unsurprising "reveal" trailer we’ve known that the sci-fi FPS is set for the PC. But what manner of manshoots are thou, Destiny 2? Bungie are answering that question tomorrow with a demonstration of the game, broadcast live into your eyeballs from some airplane hangar in California. It’s happening at 6pm BST (10am PDT/1pm EDT) and you can watch it on their official website or from their Twitch stream.
]]>Alien murderthon Destiny 2 [official site] is coming to PC for real. You know what that means: no more qualifying all our news posts with "but this is just a rumour." Hooray! The news comes as part of a "reveal trailer" which is a stupid name for a trailer when there has already been a video showing its existence. That and the shooter was officially revealed by a tweeted logo earlier this week. But never mind, let's take a look at what we can expect from the MMO-ish sequel in the video, found in the nether regions of this post.
]]>A “reveal trailer” due to come out on March 30 for Destiny 2 [official site] has got its own smaller trailer, because that’s what happens in this, the dying age of humanity. It’s got some Nathan Fillion in it though, voicing the robot japer Cayde-6, a character you might remember from the first game’s Taken King DLC if you are an original Destonerd. We’re telling you all this because we are banking on the sequel coming to PC, following some strong rumours. Anyway, you can watch the trailer for the trailer below.
]]>Destiny 2 has been officially announced by Bungie via a tweet from an official account. This was always pretty much guaranteed, given the success of the first game. But why do we care on our illustrious PC-only website? Because it might well be coming to PC as well as PlayStations and Xbones, according to some previous rumours. Those are just rumours for now but we're posting about it anyway, because we don't want to be left out of the party. In other words, we’re hedging our news-bets.
]]>According to "several sources" Destiny 2 may be coming to PC. "You played a bunch of Destiny, didn't you?" said Graham in work chat. I looked at my inbox which contains ongoing discussion of when everyone might be ready to do the new raid, thought longingly of the PS4 downstairs tempting me with its Archon's Forge quest shenanigans, cast an eye over my bookshelf which contains a spare copy of the base game which I can't remember why I own but it's a good "just in case" precaution and cautiously replied "I fucking love Destiny."
That is how I found myself writing this here "What We'd Want From Destiny 2" post.
]]>GOSSIP. TITTLE-TATTLE. RUMOUR. The basest of base discussion, as your mum told the postman in the sauna the other day. At least, that's what I hear. I also hear that maybe, just maybe, console online FPS-come-hamster-wheel Destiny [official site] might be incorporating PC into its sequel plans.
]]>I was in a long distance relationship for over two years and gaming was incredibly useful for keeping in touch with my partner*. But not every game was a good fit, either because of relative game experience or temperament or any number of other things. So here are some of the games which worked and some of the games which didn't. I'm going to explain them from my point-of-view because I don't want to presume to know exactly what his experience was!
]]>Once a week most weeks, team RPS gathers, eyes itself warily across the table then debates. Sometimes it's about SCANDAL, like slow-motion Batman or No Man's Sky hype, other times it's about perennials, like best levels ever or if Early Access means the end times.
This week, we're discussing the pitfalls and merits of platform exclusives, in the wake of Everybody's Gone To The Rapture being PS4-only, despite its devs making their name with the PC-only Dear Esther. In recent months similar has happened with Tomb Raider, and of course there's a long history of this sort of thing, from your Marios to your Halos. Is this right? Is it sensible? And what about the other side of the coin, with XCOM 2 being PC-only? Not so grumbly then, are we? Let's see if we can figure this one out, eh?
]]>It's kind of a fantastic time to be a PC gamer, if you haven't noticed. Pretty much everything of note is coming to our platform of choice, and also we get productivity software! Does it get any better? That does, however, make rare exceptions like Halo creator Bungie's new (don't-call-it-an) MMOFPS Destiny all the stranger. So why can't the multi-million-dollar-banking mega-dev - dual-wielding newfound pseudo-freedom and a series not synonymous with Microsoft's bawkes of eckses - pump out a PC version? "It's complicated," apparently. But there is hope, dim though it might be, for the future.
]]>Bungie's ambitious-sounding "sandbox" MMOFPS, Destiny, might not miss out on the One True Format after all, according to words spoken by writer and head of community Eric Osborne. In an interview with IGN he said:
“We haven’t said yes, and we haven’t said no... The more platforms we take on, the more work it ultimately becomes, and what we don’t want is to compromise the core experience on any platforms. We have a lot of people who play on PCs. We have a lot of appetite to build that experience. We haven’t announced it yet, but we’re looking forward to talking more about that kind of stuff in the future.”
So... do we want it? I really do like that concept art... But I am wholly indifferent to the CGI trailer, below.
]]>Those remarks seemingly made by Bungie yesterday, that no one plays FPS games with a mouse and keyboard any more, have led to some pretty silly debate. But it's hard to get more peculiar than an article that recently appeared on Ars Technica. Titled, "Sorry to say it, but keyboard and mouse are losing the FPS market", it not only rather helpfully highlights all the most common misconceptions about the PC's place in the market, but rather brilliantly provides some compelling data to show just how significant a player the PC actually is. Let's take a look.
]]>Halo creators Bungie have announced the platforms for their next game, online shooter Destiny, and PC is not amongst them. With 360 and PS3 versions certain, and next-gen consoles hinted at, it would seem to make a certain degree of sense to release the game on the format most suited to online FPS. But no, because according to Bungie, of mouse and keyboard players, "Nobody plays shooters the way they used to... 'cause nobody wants to."
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