I spent thousands of hours there Fate 2and after Bungie's layoffs on June 25th, it's hard to shake that feeling Fate 3The company's future now looks bleaker than ever. Even after all the frustration, burnout, bad decisions, and long stretches where I felt like I'd much rather be playing something else, I still don't know if any other shooter has ever felt quite like Fate. Bungie's shooters have always been what the franchise could turn to when everything else fell apart, which makes this layoff even more so than Fate 2The final fix, the feeling that it all actually happened, finally crumbles and ends.
Fate 2The last update, Monument of Triumph, already felt like goodbye, but there was still a small part of me that wanted to believe it might make way for something new. This was stated in Bungie's own broadcast message Fate the need to live on Fate 2which gave me and many others plenty of room to cope, I hope Fate 3 or some other major Fate the project could eventually come to fruition. But with the majority Fate team reportedly affected by cuts, future projects still described as in early incubation and Fate 3 previously reported to be out of active production, that hope now feels like nothing more than a crazy hope.
Shaxx Follow Me Into 007 First Light and Back Again from Destiny 2
Shaxx unexpectedly followed me to 007 First Light and now Greenway followed me back to Destiny 2 at the worst possible time.
Destiny 2's latest update made Destiny 3 feel possible again
For a moment, the Monument of Triumph almost made it possible to dream again. Rather than go out with a whimper, Bungie gave us one of the most substantial game-changers Fate 2 updates we've ever seen, to the point that the number of players on Steam has been breaking records for weeks now. It was all the quality of life improvements that came once Bungie finally decided to open the floodgates and give us what we've been asking for that kept us all coming back – and I think many of us were willing to stay for the foreseeable future. It was all bittersweet, but it was also one of the most powerful gaming moments any of us have ever experienced.
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The official language of the broadcast also left us plenty of room for hope. Bungie said Fate the need to live on Fate 2talked about a fresh start and promised that players will hear more when there is more news to share Fate. Maybe those phrases weren't Fate 3 teases in a specific sense, but for a community that has spent years reading between the lines of lore tabs, post-credits moments, and weird wording in TWIDs, it was enough to make us wonder if it all ends up being a massive April Fool's joke come June.
For a moment, the Monument of Triumph almost made it possible to dream again.
Like many others, I wanted to believe that there was a plan behind the silence. Maybe Fate 2 needed to end so that Bungie could finally stop trying to build a new future for a nine-year-old game. Perhaps the last update was a necessary final chapter before something more sustainable could begin. That was a dream I clung to, no matter how irrational it seemed. The problem is that such dreams need people to build them, and after this layoff, it's much harder to look at Bungie and imagine the hidden Fate 3 machine spinning behind the curtain.
Losing Team Destiny makes the dream nearly impossible
The most difficult thing about this moment is not only that there have been layoffs. Redundancies are always brutal no matter what, and the human cost of such cuts should be the first thing on anyone's mind. The people who created the memories fans mourn are now losing their dream jobs, and any article about a video game sequel shouldn't treat that as another bullet point in a trade story.
Still, it's impossible to ignore what these layoffs likely mean Fatefuture. Sony has confirmed that the layoffs affect a significant number of employees, including most Fate team. Bungie said it themselves Fate 2 has fallen short of expectations over the past few years, and that after the final content update, its future projects are still in the early stages of incubation. To me, it doesn't sound at all like a studio getting ready to reveal or even start work Fate 3but as a studio trying to survive the end Fate 2 so they can continue working Marathon with the people they left behind.
The reported departure of studio head Justin Truman only adds more finality to the moment. Leadership changes are always tricky, and there's no need to pretend that the future of such a big franchise is determined by one person. Even so, massive layoffs hit Fate team, along with the departure of the studio head, sends a very clear emotional signal to players who were still hoping that Bungie would have another big Fate swing left.
Redundancies are always brutal no matter what, and the human cost of such cuts should be the first thing on anyone's mind.
For me, the most painful thing is to think about the people who created Fate feel like Fate. If the news and public posts from former developers are any indication, this “restructuring”, if you still want to tag on these things, hit the people in charge Fate 2 sandpit. When former developers say things on social media about finding new studios where they can help bring shooting and looting up to modern standards, it says a lot about what the industry is missing from Bungie.
If the people who really understood the bones of the game are gone, or if the majority Fate the team in general was gutted Fate 3 it officially feels like something fans will talk about the way they talk about other games that never actually existed. It becomes a what-if rather than a when. This is going to be a corridor Bungie can't and probably will never go down.
The chances of Destiny 3 are extremely slim
All that said, I still want to be wrong. I'd love to wake up one day and see Bungie announcing a focused, ambitious Fate 3 that respects everything the players loved while leaving everything behind Fate 2 could never fix. I'd like to believe that Monument of Triumph was a farewell to one version Fatenot until Fate as a living, evolving idea. But right now, it's hard to see that future clearly.
Bungie is moving forward with Marathonfuture projects are still early, and the people who carried Fate 2 during recent years they are now scattered throughout the industry. There may still be something called Fate one day but Fate 3as we all imagined, it feels more distant than ever.
After these layoffs, he says Fate 3 it seems unlikely to be the understatement of the century. Rather, it seems like a dream of a community still trying to process the ending of one of the most important looter shooters ever made. Monument of Triumph let us say goodbye Fate 2but these layoffs make us feel as if we may also be saying goodbye to the one architect who could have built its future.
- Released
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August 28, 2017
- ESRB
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T for TEEN for blood, language and violence
