Bungie announces maintenance for Destiny's servers, resulting in the first-person shooter to be down for a number of hours today ahead of next week's Crimson Days event.

Those trying to log on to Destiny today may be distraught to discover that the servers are down. While this may inconvenience some players, the good news is that there's nothing catastrophic going on - the servers for Destiny are just down for scheduled maintenance.

The maintenance began at 11am Eastern, and will conclude 5pm Eastern. During this time, players will not be able to log onto Destiny at all. Furthermore, fans can expect some restricted access to Bungie's website as well as the Destiny companion app.

Server maintenance for online-only games like Destiny is certainly nothing new, and it's nothing fans should be worried about. Having said that, it's unclear what exactly the maintenance is for, though the most likely scenario is that it is in preparation for next week's Crimson Days event, and the other content coming in Destiny's February update.

While Destiny remains one of the most popular online shooters, it seems as though its population has lowered somewhat. Bungie recently sent out surveys, which asked, among other questions, why some gamers have quit playing Destiny. Whether or not the Crimson Days event will be enough to draw back in those that have abandoned their guardian remains to be seen.

Perhaps Bungie is expecting an influx of lapsed players to return to Destiny during the Crimson Days event to participate in the new Crimson Doubles mode in the Crucible. The server maintenance could be a way to ensure that there is no downtime when the event kicks off proper on February 9th.

Many fans expressed disappointment regarding the Crimson Days event, as they were expecting a more substantial update for Destiny after a general lack of new content over the past couple of months. Some have taken this as a sign that Bungie is slowly starting to phase out support of Destiny, perhaps to focus on the rumored Destiny 2. Because of this, it seems unlikely that the Crimson Days event will capture the attention of those that have stopped playing Destiny, and Bungie should ensure that the March update for the game is much more significant if it wants to compete with The Division.

In any case, those that are still playing Destiny can expect to jump back into the game at 5pm Eastern time. There is a possibility that server maintenance will wrap up before that, or Bungie may wind up extending it, so stay tuned for potentially more information on the matter.

Destiny is currently available for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.

Source: PlayStationLifeStyle