When Bungie announced its first project following its separation from Microsoft, Halo fans were eager to see what corner of the galaxy the studio would take them to next. Destiny launched in 2014 to generally warm reception, due to its solid gunplay and art direction. The title fell short for most in its brief campaign and sparse end-game, which encouraged grinding, but despite this, there was a promise of more exciting content on the horizon, and fans found comfort as they played with and against fellow guardians. Destiny ended seven years shy of its impressive ten-year road map, followed by Destiny 2 in 2017. Bungie plans to maintain Destiny 2 for as long as possible with no publicly announced plans for Destiny 3, but it has a new live service game in the works among several other alleged projects.

In order to avoid Destiny 2 collapsing under the weight of its content, or making a Destiny 3, Bungie committed to cycling old content out when adding new content. This content vault became another point of contention among players who disliked losing their favorite campaigns and raids in favor of new content. Bungie insisted this change was necessary at the time, but announced an end to the vaulting of expansion content in August 2022. However, this hasn't stopped the studio from seemingly neglecting player-favorite game modes, with many asking for an update on the future of Gambit. Regardless of these issues, it could be an outdated engine that ultimately forces Bungie to move on from Destiny 2.

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Bungie is Determined to Maintain Destiny 2's Tiger Engine

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Built on the same Tiger Engine that brought players every Halo game since Combat Evolved began development in 1997, it's no surprise that the ambitious Destiny 2 is showing signs of wear. The game frequently undergoes maintenance following major updates; changes and added weight seem to take their toll on Tiger Engine now more than ever. While maintenance and bugs might be expected from a studio's first live service IP, especially one of this scale and quality, fans have come to the conclusion that the engine is to blame for nearly all of Destiny 2's shortcomings. Many even claim they would be willing to leave Destiny 2 behind for a third entry built on a new engine. A recent job listing on Bungie's careers page calls for Unreal Engine 5 developers, so Bungie may be looking to leave the Tiger Engine behind with Destiny.

Destiny 2 has incurred a litany of issues since its launch, but many players have noted an increase in frequency of glitches and server outages. Many prominent streamers have taken to YouTube to offer Bungie concise guidelines as to what they believe should be done to fix their favorite game, which typically includes the call for a new or totally revamped engine. The recent mid-season update included bugs ranging from simple to game-breaking, like the Guardian Games statue displaying the incorrect winner from last year, painfully crunchy audio issues, or frequent crashes when joining King's Fall. As a new season approaches, fans continue to voice their concerns and offer change suggestions, like a reworking of the recently added Stasis fragments.

Bungie has made it clear it has no intention of massively overhauling Destiny 2's engine any more than it already has, and it claims there will not be a Destiny 3. Many fans wonder if the engine can support further updates, and Bungie's failure to fully disclose patch notes has drawn the ire of players once again.

The truth is, despite the Tiger Engine being about as old as the average Destiny player, it's a fairly solid engine. To replace the engine a game is built on is not so simple, and abandoning its proprietary tools for another engine or building an entirely new one brings with it the time and effort of rebuilding the very workflow of a studio. Perhaps the mention of UE5 in various job listings is a sign that Bungie is moving on from Tiger Engine with its upcoming projects, but if Destiny 2 is the end of the line for the IP, it's likely the game will never exist on another engine—at least not for quite a while. Either way, though, Destiny 2 will one day come to an end just like other MMOs, and the Tiger Engine's issues make it feel like that end could come sooner rather than later.

Destiny 2 is currently available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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