It seems like no matter what Bungie may do to try to get Destiny players excited for the future of their shooter, they typically find that they can’t please them all. While some are still extremely excited for the launch of the House of Wolves DLC expansion, for example, others derided the lack of a new raid.
On a similar note, Bungie has come under fire this week after teasing their new social space, The Reef, via a brief trailer. In the trailer, players finally got to see what The Reef’s visual palette would look like, and many noticed something eerily familiar. See, while The Reef is supposed to be a new social space for Destiny, developed some time between the launch of the game and now, it may have already been part of Bungie’s plans from the very beginning.
As a few eagle-eyed gamers have already pointed out, one of the early Destiny trailers featured, among other things, an image with a purple-background hangar. It’s a very brief shot, but the footage appears to show the player running around the area almost exactly like they would while in the Tower, Destiny’s main social space. The lack of helmet, the third person perspective – both seemed to suggest this was a non-combat zone, perhaps one where players could interact with NPCs and buy new gear.
However, this trailer was released in 2013, well before House of Wolves was even something players looked forward to. Could this area be the same Reef that is launching with that Destiny DLC expansion?
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It turns out those assumptions were correct, as this area is most definitely The Reef. Even just a cursory glance at the comparison images above will tell Destiny players that this new social space was in development well before any DLC plans were announced.
In most cases, a brief tease like this would be easily explained away as an asset used way ahead of time. But, with a game like Destiny it’s not so easy. When the game first launched, many players were surprised to find that Destiny was relatively bare in terms of content. It appeared that the story had been almost completely ripped out of the game, and the playable areas were fewer than most players hoped.
Furthermore, some clever Destiny players were able to uncover on-disc areas that were either not in use by the game or seemed to be connected to upcoming DLC. This, of course, prompted speculation that content had actually been ripped or held out of Destiny in order to be sold as DLC.
No doubt this new info about The Reef is sure to drum up similar sentiments among the Destiny community, but it’s best not to jump to any inclusions just yet. Bungie is set to officially unveil The Reef during a guided tour later today, so perhaps then they will explain the development timeline for the new social space.
Source: Twitter