The return of fan favorite content coincides with the recent announcement that longtime Raid designer Joe Blackburn has rejoined Bungie and is already hard at work on Destiny 2. The announcement came on Joe’s Twitter account where he had just wrapped up his second day back at the popular developer. Naturally, the announcement was received extremely well by fans and fellow Bungie staffers as the Tweet received loads of replies, congratulations, and of course, an “if you love something…” quote from DeeJ.
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Former Design Lead at Bungie, Blackburn announced his departure in April 2019. However, the split was clearly amicable based on the good things he had to say about the studio. He’d go on to work at Riot Games in Santa Monica as a principal designer in the Research and Development department. While the game has changed significantly over the year he was gone, having his expertise back will only benefit the game as it continues to evolve into the future.
The major reason why fans are excited about this move is that Blackburn was responsible for many of the franchise’s best Raid content. He’s designed some truly memorable experiences from King’s Fall in the first Destiny all the way through the well received Last Wish raid in the Forsaken expansion. While fans don’t know what position Blackburn has taken back at Bungie, having him back in the fold and presumably working again on Raids and Dungeons indicates big things for the future.
His return could also be tied to the Destiny Content Vault, a program that Bungie intends to utilize to keep the game file size and upkeep manageable. The studio will be removing legacy content while also bringing stuff forward from the first game. This fall, the Cosmodrome and Vault of Glass raid make their long awaited return, while some lesser played content will be filed away for the time being. Bungie confirmed that on September 22, 2020, Mars, Io, Titan, Mercury, and Leviathan are all leaving the game at least temporarily while the new content gets put in.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
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