Destiny 2 directors reassessing shooter’s future following Star Wars-themed expansion Renegades
Bungie has said Destiny 2 must evolve after a post-Final Shape slump, using the upcoming Renegades expansion to rebuild momentum with revamped progression, bolder storytelling, and a renewed focus on what players actually want.
Destiny 2’s leadership has said the long-running shooter is at a crossroads, and the upcoming Renegades expansion is their chance to course-correct after a turbulent year.
Speaking to IGN, game director Tyson Green and core creative director Ben Womack acknowledged developer Bungie must rethink how Destiny grows - and how it keeps players engaged - after The Final Shape effectively ended the franchise’s decade-long Light and Darkness saga.
Green said Destiny’s audience has “hardened” around its most dedicated fans, with far fewer new players entering the ecosystem - a dangerous trend for a live-service game built on long-term retention.
The slump that followed July’s The Edge of Fate expansion didn’t help, especially after its redesigned power grind proved far too punishing.
Green admitted: “It sounds great on paper, but it didn’t work,” calling the experience a “hard lesson” about what players actually want, that being meaningful rewards, not bigger numbers.
That reality pushed Bungie to overhaul Destiny’s release cadence, as instead of one major expansion each year, the studio will now ship two mid-sized expansions annually - giving it more chances to experiment, respond to feedback, and rebuild momentum.
The next test is Renegades, a Star Wars-inspired “space western” story that leans into Forsaken-style tone, introduces new blasters and a lightsaber-like Praxic Blade, revives a deeper faction system, and rebalances progression to feel less grindy.
Womack said the team is challenging long-standing assumptions about what Destiny should be, especially when collaborating with Lucasfilm.
He said: “You need to re-examine everything,” arguing that pushing past those boundaries is essential for keeping the game alive.
