I enjoy playing Destiny and I don’t believe its future is as bleak as some people suggest (although more educated minds on the game disagree, not here but elsewhere). The game consistently has a decent player base on Steam and performs well on consoles but it is getting long in the tooth and on a steady fall. The elephant in the room is the likes of Helldivers which has overshadowed Destiny, garnering more attention and popularity (of course, it’s early days for one and later for the other)
Steam is usually used as it often is good at representing the trend with a game.
If you look at the trend on Steam it is clear the playerbase is declining and therefore is also likely declining on console.
Steam Trend:
Playstation:
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But The Division is online!!! 
I’m a big of The Division too, one of the few live service games I keep going back to.
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Imagine calling a mediocre and literally dying franchise the best in the market (lmao, thankfully gamers at large disagree with the general sentiment around the game as well as the very bad preorder numbers for the upcoming expansion) while simultaneously saying Phil Spencer is “salty” when he is the one who passed on Bungie due to their outrageous demands in the first place.
Sony only catered to the outrageous price and stipulations out of desperation and now, even among the PS community, paying so much for Bungie with the decline of Destiny combined with not being able to hit their numbers is seen as a failure…even by devout fanboys. Edit: not to mention the vast layoffs the studio had just to be able to make revenue target. If Microsoft had bought them the Xbox tax/blame given to the whole debacle would be deafening by both the media and gamers at large and that’s an undisputed fact.
What a terrible take. You really need to play more games.
Absolutely loved Destiny 2 and it’s probably my second most played game of my whole life after FF14. I got to the point after a while where I didn’t need any more of it though. I’ll jump back into the series if and when there’s ever a Destiny 3.
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The ‘best’ is always going to be subjective anyway. Surely the only way to quantity this is what the majority think is the ‘best’ and there are other live service games which are far more popular than Destiny.
If Destiny was the “best” then surely more people would be playing it, right?
When you’ve got games like Fortnite, GTA Online, Rainbow 6 Siege, Apex Legends, Valorant, League of Legends, World of Warcraft, DOTA, Genshin Impact, Roblox, Minecraft, PUBG, CS:Go, Rust and CoD all consistently bringing in more players it suggests otherwise.
Many of these games are also over ten years old! WoW for example will be celebrating their 20th anniversary this year. This isn’t even all of them, there are plenty more…
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I hope the OP @Guardian doesn’t mind but can we use this thread as a space to discuss what makes a great live service game?
I couldn’t get into destiny because it was running at 30 FPS on next Gen consoles and that really disappointed me and I haven’t went back to it since.
But it’s incredibly popular and I am interested in what makes it so great as a live service game.
For example I play the game Vigor quite often and it falls short in terms of a live service game in many respects but I just love the atmosphere and the feeling of the game. It takes place in post nuclear war Norway in the '80s. It’s such a specific setting and the vibe is just great. The music as well as the levels, it all oozes character. It’s a looter shooter with you and others fighting for resources on the mountains and hillsides of Norway, scavaging through abandoned buildings.
The battle passes are pretty time-consuming grinds which really suck. The gunplay is pretty good but at times incredibly poor because people can just jump and shoot like it’s Halo in what is supposed to be a very grounded shooter. But I still love it.
Fortnite was incredible with the battle passes, challenge system, and constant updates. Fair MTX. Evolving gameplay through new weapons and abilities rolled out constantly.
Halo infinite is fantastic playing and with forge it offers so much content to play, but lacks so much of the live service stuff that it needs to survive as a live service game.
So where does Destiny excel, exactly? I know it had millions of gamers hooked so there are probably a few things that many other live service games wish they had.
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It’s an interesting question.
One thing I’d always say with Destiny is the shooting mechanics are top notch. As are many of the story elements, quite a few people merge the cutscenes and upload them to YouTube as mini-movies.
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Go for it.
Destiny excels with a breath of repeatable content with random rewards, and it has content that takes varying times.
The majority of content can be completed in 10-20 minutes. Then there is middle tier content like dungeons and master/grandmaster modes of content which takes on average 20-40 minutes.
Then you have raids for that long term highly rewarding content that could take anywhere between 40 minutes to 2 hours depending on team skill.
To top it off destiny has the best gameplay in the industry and continues to refine and add new features over time. Look at the evolution of classes into one dimensional things which now let you set custom aspects and fragments.
Look at how many new weapons types and perks they continually add over the years to give new and interesting things to grind for.
Look at the refinements to customization and trans mog over time.
Look at the changes to the armour mods system over time.
I could go on and on but one things for sure, no other live service is as addictive and respects your time like destiny does
And why did my main post get hidden ?
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I’m not opposed to playing a game online if it requires it but if not, I prefer to play off-line. Also, with The Division 1/2, you can play fully solo as a lone wolf. The only thing I miss out on is Raids because there’s no way I can complete them solo as im just too outnumbered but it’s no biggie as both games lasted me 100+ and 150+ hours each. Now, I do see other players in safe houses or outside the base but that doesn’t affect me whatsoever. Hehe.
I loved and enjoyed The Division but I do love The Division 2 more. Super hyped for The Division 3 which I hope will be a next generation only title which I believe is a pretty safe bet and im looking forward to The Division Heartland later this year or in 2025!!
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I saw that division 2 has been going for 5 years. How much content do they release in their seasons ? Is it worth trying ? And does it play well on steam deck ?
The seasons are normally manhunts which is where you complete certain tasks to draw the regional target out and after you eliminate four targets, you draw out the prime/main target. The loop is basically the same but for me, it’s the world, atmosphere, gunplay/shooting mechanics, loot and the gameplay loop that I love. Haven’t played it since last year some time but that’s also because im waiting for them to add new story content which I think was delayed to 2025 if I remember correctly.
At this point, im just waiting for Heartland since it’s a new albeit spinoff game in the series. I did replay the base game and expansion in early 2021 and want to replay it again but need an empty gap of no new releases to do so. Will eventually replay though. lol
Played it originally in 2019 on PlayStation 4 Pro and replayed on Xbox Series X.
How’s the playerbase looking ? And how’s the dark zone ? I remember enjoying that part in division 1
To be perfectly honest, I have no idea how the player base is as I have never looked into it. I would imagine that it’s doing well enough for Ubisoft to keep supporting the game with new content and whatnot.
As for the Dark Zone, I always play solo and have never ever played the Dark Zone especially since I would need Gold (now Game Pass core) or Plus to participate which isn’t for me since im not a PvP gamer. For me, it’s all about PvE. 
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I’m considering picking up division 2 in the steam sales, but first I’ll see how destiny into the light looks, they’ve got their live stream tomorrow ! Hype !
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Awesome!! Division 2 is third person cover based so it’s definitely a different type of shooter when compared to Destiny.
Late to the party, but Destiny is terrible and Bungie have driven it into the ground in recent months. Sea Of Thieves and Halo’s post-launch support blow it out of the water. I reckon we’ll be getting much more Marathon news going forward as Bungie attempt to distance themselves from it now that they’ve squeezed as much juice as they can out of it.
Hell yeah destiny is getting a 50 round horde mode for free in a couple weeks!
https://twitter.com/blueisviolet/status/1770029120619237815?t=xNbJNff4bLxyrRxIram6TQ&s=19
I thought this might be relevant here…
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I do wonder how much of Bungie’s headcount cut was about removing what they could to make themselves more efficient / profitable as a business, and how much of it was to desperately try and improve profitability so as to meet the profitability targets that if they miss trigger Sony’s ability to take over management of Bungie…
I.e.; was it about the management wanting Bungie to be as strong as possible, or was it a panic move to save their own skins?
Not surprised Sony aren’t too happy either - the live service push has been cut back so Bungie’s advice isn’t so necessary, and Bungie’s profitability and player counts have taken a major dive since they bought them.
It very much feels like Sony bought them at the top of the market, as part of their reaction to the ABK purchase…
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