On Aug. 3, Bungie launched one in every of its State of the Sport weblog posts for Future 2 to deal with among the rising damaging sentiment surrounding the title throughout Season of the Deep. However the State of the Sport in query missed the mark and participant outcry solely grew in quantity following its publication.
In a brand new video launched immediately by Future 2’s sport director Joe Blackburn, he admitted the latest State of the Game post “wasn’t as much as our requirements” and mentioned Bungie plans to “be speaking to you all extra” going ahead. Not solely did he cowl the negative reactions that players had to the sections on PvP and armor, but additionally revealed how the devs are shifting their priorities for each in response to that suggestions.
“Just a few weeks in the past, we put out a State of the Sport communication that wasn’t as much as our requirements for what y’all have come to count on for these sorts of communications,” Blackburn mentioned. “It didn’t present the high-level imaginative and prescient that we usually present, and actually, actually, a bunch of us have been heads down engaged on The Closing Form and weren’t capable of give it the care and love that we usually put into these sorts of communications.”
It was a mistake that he placed on himself, “so I needed to return in, discuss to you all immediately, and provide you with an replace about that State of the Sport we put out and what we take into consideration Future as a complete.”
Most of all, Blackburn needed to emphasise that the showcase approaching Aug. 22 “shouldn’t be a response to the State of the Sport final week, it’s not a response to a bunch of the sentiment on-line and it’s positively not a response to this video. It was recorded some time in the past.” It’s additionally a showcase meant for a wider viewers than most posts that Bungie places out, and so it received’t embrace particulars on issues like an replace to how buffs and debuffs are introduced on the HUD in The Closing Form—a quality-of-life replace Blackburn revealed on this video.
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Even when the showcase itself received’t provide the extra open and expansive communication that the gamers need, Blackburn promised “we’re going to be speaking to y’all extra.”
However that does include caveats. “Speaking to y’all extra, our primary precedence, we now have to maintain our group members and our group leaders secure on the Bungie aspect,” he mentioned. “I don’t need anybody who indicators as much as come work at Bungie and to speak to you in regards to the sport to have to fret about their private security. So we’re going to maintain utilizing our branded accounts. We’re going to be utilizing these accounts with extra character, going and speaking to you all extra.”
A few of these expanded factors of communication have been mentioned within the video, corresponding to a chat that might be hosted after the showcase livestream to reply extra in-depth questions on The Closing Form and past, in addition to Blackburn himself committing to some streams all through the following two seasons to sit down down and discuss with the group whereas he performs Future 2.
On the subject of PvP, Blackburn additional mentioned the crew had been targeted on “sandbox stability,” prioritizing basis components of the Crucible, like ensuring Strand got here out in an excellent place, over the brand new content material—corresponding to maps—gamers have been asking for.
“This method shouldn’t be producing the Crucible that our gamers count on of us,” he mentioned. “It’s clear the sluggish trickle of PvP maps isn’t having the impact we would like.” He mentioned new maps “aren’t going to resolve a basis” however introduced that subsequent yr, Future 2 will start to focus efforts on releasing singular, massive map packs at no cost for PvP.
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The response to the State of the Sport’s dialogue on ritual armor additionally got here up within the video, and whereas Blackburn believes Bungie has the “proper precedence” going ahead with the place it focuses its armor releases for Future 2, he admitted that “what we didn’t do once we re-prioritized this was talk this to you.”
Ritual armor was initially imagined to launch with every enlargement, however Lightfall didn’t function one because of Bungie not deeming it as doable in its reprioritized manufacturing pipeline. However to make up for the uncommunicated shift, an armor set originally scheduled for the Eververse retailer will as a substitute be launched as a free, ritual set towards the top of subsequent season.
The video doesn’t handle each subject of situation but it surely does provide a treatment to among the bitter style left behind by the State of the Sport weblog for the participant base at massive. Whereas different areas corresponding to Gambit stay notably omitted from Bungie’s response, the solutions round its method to PvP, armor, and communication can ease among the stress forward of the Future 2 showcase subsequent week.
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