Bungie Says Destiny 2: Renegades Pushes Beyond Its Usual Boundaries, Believes It Can Build a Strong Future

Bungie has openly acknowledged the challenges facing Destiny 2, once viewed as a gold standard for live service shooters. In a recent interview with IGN, game director Tyson Green and core creative director Ben Wommack discussed what went wrong after The Final Shape and why they believe Destiny 2: Renegades can help reset the trajectory of the franchise.

Green was direct about the steep drop in player engagement following The Final Shape, despite the expansion delivering a well received ending to Destiny’s decade long narrative arc. According to Green, the dramatic player decline was not anticipated.

“The Final Shape brought things to a crescendo. People were pleased and satisfied with what they played, and then the big downwards spike in population came after. That happened because we ended the saga. So you get what you pay for, right.”

He added that while the conclusion was creatively fulfilling, it created an unexpected problem on the business side. Destiny was always meant to continue, but the transition was not handled smoothly.

The team attempted to re energize the game with Edge of Fate, but Green admitted the experiment did not succeed. Bungie leaned heavily into progression based systems, including gear tiers, armor sets, and challenge customization. However, these systems did not resonate with players.

“It sounded great on paper, but it did not work. We have been taught a bunch of hard lessons. There are live games that listen to players and respond, and live games that do not. We do not want to be a dead live game.”

According to Green and Wommack, the next expansion Destiny 2: Renegades, launching on December 2, 2025, will mark the beginning of renewed alignment with player expectations. The expansion carries a heavy Star Wars inspired design influence and introduces syndicates, new weapon types like Blasters, and the lightsaber style Praxic Blades.

Wommack stressed that the Praxic Blade represents Bungie intentionally stepping outside its traditional constraints for Destiny.

“You often have a bunch of conventions and boundaries for games that have been around a long time. It is tempting to stick to them, but the truth is that you need to re examine all of them when you want to do something special. This is especially true when working with Lucasfilm.”

Green reinforced that while Renegades pushes the creative envelope, it remains fundamentally a Destiny expansion at its core.

The success of Renegades will be a critical moment for Bungie. Even if the expansion performs extremely well, many players and analysts believe it may be time for the studio to move beyond Destiny 2 entirely. Rumors of Destiny 3 have been circulating, and with a franchise now more than ten years old, a fresh start appears increasingly likely.

Given Bungie’s internal challenges, public player frustration, and difficulties extending engagement beyond The Final Shape, the studio may soon need to rethink what the future of Destiny looks like. Renegades could act as a stabilizing bridge, but many believe the long term answer lies in a full generational shift.

For now, Bungie at least appears willing to make bold moves and listen to its community.

Do you think Destiny 2 can be revived with Renegades, or is it time for Bungie to move on to Destiny 3?