OPINION – With one day away from the release of Ubisoft Massive’s latest venture into the video game industry called Tom Clancy’s The Division I felt that it was high time to address the elephant in the room. Which is comparisons that are made with Destiny, and the continued shit flinging that has occurred for the past few months, particularly on both Reddit sites, plus on the Bungie forums.

 

While we have dealt both with The Division and Destiny (to which I was heavily addicted to the point where my Editor clearly wanted me to focus on other tasks), with the recent news that Destiny 2 getting delayed, and, to be honest, Bungie backpedaling on the whole: „No paid expansions in 2016”. I felt it was time to final draw the line and compare these two “Fresh” franchises. In the case of Destiny if you do not wear rose tinted glasses you pretty much can see how the game is on its last legs before the hangman comes to snap the neck of the poor game finally. It does not mean last legs from a consumer standpoint, though, more of ah… development and active monetary support from Activision. In the case of Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment, The Division seems to have learned in a way from Destiny.

The problem with this is that they kept delaying the game up until 2016 many citing that the game will either be dead on arrival or carved up into piece meals sold just like Destiny, due to the long development process. Let us see what the prospects are, and why fans of both games are in a bit of a virtual trench war when both games are mentioned in the same sentence. Let the franchise wars begin!

The problem with this is that they kept delaying the game up until 2016 many citing that the game will either be dead on arrival or carved up into piece meals sold just like Destiny, due to the long development process. Let us see what the prospects are, and why fans of both games are in a bit of a virtual trench war when both games are mentioned in the same sentence. Let the franchise wars begin!

The problem with this is that they kept delaying the game up until 2016 many citing that the game will either be dead on arrival or carved up into piece meals sold just like Destiny, due to the long development process. Let us see what the prospects are, and why fans of both games are in a bit of a virtual trench war when both games are mentioned in the same sentence. Let the franchise wars begin!

Destiny – An innovator dead at the start

Destiny rose to the top of the charts, and player numbers beyond any comprehension, but at the same time it also keeps falling in the mud. Unfortunately, the franchise suffers from mismanagement, and with the developers not really knowing where to take their content next.Destiny was a game back in 2014 that should not have been even released, the warning signs were there, with the lead writer and music composer getting kicked off from the project. The disappointment of Destiny also happened in what constitutes as pretty much the most toxic year for the next generation of consoles, as Destiny was just one of many disappointing games released in 2014. From the Crew to Watch Dogs, it seemed that all promises made for 2014 were broken, and on top of this the five-year development plan that folded due to problems within Bungie.

While both Activision and Bungie racked in gazillions from Destiny, the franchise as a whole can be considered in a weird position. On the one end, you have millions of players who bought the game and felt ripped off in a certain way (cough for nearly two hundred dollars spent on barely the content justifying its steep price tag). While on the other hand, you have Science-Fiction franchise that took a sledgehammer to the phrase: ”Record sales”, and beat (and is still beating when a new expansion comes out) the sales chart. Hell at this point we would be at “Destiny III – The Sequel for Even More Money” if not for one thing which is the developer itself.

People like to claim Activision ruined Bungie as soon as they got their hands on them, but to be quite frank it seems that with all the leaked documents, memos, and firing of staff show that Activision does not have much of a say in Bungie’s inner workings. Nor even have that much power in influencing Destiny’s development. In fact just by reading a small transcript of their latest earning’s call they actually seem a bit shocked that Destiny still has a loyal fanbase, even, after all, the negative press they got from different sources.

Better yet they want to fuel that money fire by releasing another expansion in 2016 before Destiny 2 hits in 2017. Activision maybe a seen as an evil publisher by most people, but at the same time, no publisher is brain-dead enough to kneecap a franchise before it even launches. You could even make the argument if they wanted to nickel and dime the consumer they could have done it way better, as currently everything is pretty slow and horrendous. There’s no content to sell for Bungie or Activision, and they cannot promise us anything concrete otherwise, the internet and the fanbase both on Reddit and Bungie.net will tear their limbs apart.

In fact just by reading a small transcript of their latest earning’s call they actually seem a bit shocked that Destiny still has a loyal fanbase, even, after all, the negative press they got from different sources. Better yet they want to fuel that money fire by releasing another expansion in 2016 before Destiny 2 hits in 2017. Activision maybe a seen as an evil publisher by most people, but at the same time, no publisher is brain-dead enough to kneecap a franchise before it even launches. You could even make the argument if they wanted to nickel and dime the consumer they could have done it way better, as currently everything is pretty slow and horrendous. There’s no content to sell for Bungie or Activision, and they cannot promise us anything concrete otherwise, the internet and the fanbase both on Reddit and Bungie.net will tear their limbs apart.

Nor even have that much power in influencing Destiny’s development. In fact just by reading a small transcript of their latest earning’s call they actually seem a bit shocked that Destiny still has a loyal fanbase, even, after all, the negative press they got from different sources. Better yet they want to fuel that money fire by releasing another expansion in 2016 before Destiny 2 hits in 2017. Activision maybe a seen as an evil publisher by most people, but at the same time, no publisher is brain-dead enough to kneecap a franchise before it even launches. You could even make the argument if they wanted to nickel and dime the consumer they could have done it way better, as currently everything is pretty slow and horrendous. There’s no content to sell for Bungie or Activision, and they cannot promise us anything concrete otherwise, the internet and the fanbase both on Reddit and Bungie.net will tear their limbs apart.

Activision maybe a seen as an evil publisher by most people, but at the same time, no publisher is brain-dead enough to kneecap a franchise before it even launches. You could even make the argument if they wanted to nickel and dime the consumer they could have done it way better, as currently everything is pretty slow and horrendous. There’s no content to sell for Bungie or Activision, and they cannot promise us anything concrete otherwise, the internet and the fanbase both on Reddit and Bungie.net will tear their limbs apart.

Nor even have that much power in influencing Destiny’s development. In fact just by reading a small transcript of their latest earning’s call they actually seem a bit shocked that Destiny still has a loyal fanbase, even, after all, the negative press they got from different sources. Better yet they want to fuel that money fire by releasing another expansion in 2016 before Destiny 2 hits in 2017. Activision maybe a seen as an evil publisher by most people, but at the same time, no publisher is brain-dead enough to kneecap a franchise before it even launches. You could even make the argument if they wanted to nickel and dime the consumer they could have done it way better, as currently everything is pretty slow and horrendous. There’s no content to sell for Bungie or Activision, and they cannot promise us anything concrete otherwise, the internet and the fanbase both on Reddit and Bungie.net will tear their limbs apart.

People like to claim Activision ruined Bungie as soon as they got their hands on them, but to be quite frank it seems that with all the leaked documents, memos, and firing of staff show that Activision does not have much of a say in Bungie’s inner workings. Nor even have that much power in influencing Destiny’s development. In fact just by reading a small transcript of their latest earning’s call they actually seem a bit shocked that Destiny still has a loyal fanbase, even, after all, the negative press they got from different sources.

Better yet they want to fuel that money fire by releasing another expansion in 2016 before Destiny 2 hits in 2017. Activision maybe a seen as an evil publisher by most people, but at the same time, no publisher is brain-dead enough to kneecap a franchise before it even launches. You could even make the argument if they wanted to nickel and dime the consumer they could have done it way better, as currently everything is pretty slow and horrendous. There’s no content to sell for Bungie or Activision, and they cannot promise us anything concrete otherwise, the internet and the fanbase both on Reddit and Bungie.net will tear their limbs apart.

Nor even have that much power in influencing Destiny’s development. In fact just by reading a small transcript of their latest earning’s call they actually seem a bit shocked that Destiny still has a loyal fanbase, even, after all, the negative press they got from different sources. Better yet they want to fuel that money fire by releasing another expansion in 2016 before Destiny 2 hits in 2017. Activision maybe a seen as an evil publisher by most people, but at the same time, no publisher is brain-dead enough to kneecap a franchise before it even launches. You could even make the argument if they wanted to nickel and dime the consumer they could have done it way better, as currently everything is pretty slow and horrendous. There’s no content to sell for Bungie or Activision, and they cannot promise us anything concrete otherwise, the internet and the fanbase both on Reddit and Bungie.net will tear their limbs apart.

After nearly six months of waiting The Taken King once again shattered expectations in sales only to be left in the dust by many weeks after its release (including me) because it nullified and twisted the content so much that a lot of people became questioned the point of even playing this game for a year. Those who stuck around after the release were forced to realize that while Taken King added content, it diminished the overall experience for many old players. With negating more than 2/3rds of the original content built up by the base game and two expansions, fan reception ranged from good to downright calling the expansion a rip-off. Another problem with the franchise is the lack of support from the developers, or the slowness of responding to issues facing a large portion of the player base.

They implement changes that no one wanted or asked for, and in this process if they break something well tough luck they cannot fix it as it may take too much time and money. In the end, the supplier, i.e., Bungie is not able to meet the demands of the gamers for this franchise, both due to technical and narrative limitations. A focus on PVP has alienated a lot of players, and only recently with the release of the Activision earnings call did the fanbase get a new ray of hope for more PVE content as PVP content was much easier for Bungie to release and state that it is a new awesome mode for everyone. This resulted in further alienation of PVE players, and criticism that the game has become too PVP focused. Hopefully, the supposed Spring update will fix all of this.

They implement changes that no one wanted or asked for, and in this process if they break something well tough luck they cannot fix it as it may take too much time and money. In the end, the supplier, i.e., Bungie is not able to meet the demands of the gamers for this franchise, both due to technical and narrative limitations. A focus on PVP has alienated a lot of players, and only recently with the release of the Activision earnings call did the fanbase get a new ray of hope for more PVE content as PVP content was much easier for Bungie to release and state that it is a new awesome mode for everyone. This resulted in further alienation of PVE players, and criticism that the game has become too PVP focused. Hopefully, the supposed Spring update will fix all of this.

They implement changes that no one wanted or asked for, and in this process if they break something well tough luck they cannot fix it as it may take too much time and money. In the end, the supplier, i.e., Bungie is not able to meet the demands of the gamers for this franchise, both due to technical and narrative limitations. A focus on PVP has alienated a lot of players, and only recently with the release of the Activision earnings call did the fanbase get a new ray of hope for more PVE content as PVP content was much easier for Bungie to release and state that it is a new awesome mode for everyone. This resulted in further alienation of PVE players, and criticism that the game has become too PVP focused. Hopefully, the supposed Spring update will fix all of this.

Destiny should not be a horrible game; it is a game with deep lore, fantastic visuals, and great gunplay (something that The Division does not really have). Yet it falls apart due to the mismanagement within Bungie, and the lack of content in for the hungry player base, at this Destiny II or whatever it will be called, is going to be (hopefully) a better game. The problem is that while Destiny was a great success, in the beginning, it might have burned away the goodwill of the media, and fans with their inconsistent communication, and lack of content updates. The franchise became toxic in a way before Activision even could develop that inevitable Scifi TV series on MTV, it is a brand that needs a redemption in a way. However, a new challenger has appeared way back in 2013 and slowly walked into a release date.

Tom Clancy’s The Division – Slow and steady wins the race?

Ubisoft Massive’s newest IP – The Division is shaping up to be a massive hit, but both publisher and developer played a deadly game of wait and see. In my opinion, the constant delays, and waiting was an effect due Destiny’s rather weak reception from the gaming community. Massive Entertainment got enough time and had the resources to refine their game before finally releasing it in 2016. With claims like You get to play in New York which is modelled 1:1, and graphics that looked spectacular. Still with Ubisoft released games the graphical downgrades hit the fans waiting for the game (although the game still looks good), and instead of the entire NYC we only get to roam around Midtown Manhattan. Accusations of cut content and marketing lies have been thrown at Ubisoft and Massive due to gameplay being shown taking place in Brooklyn back in 2013 but became absent in the full release though the only comment has been made about this by the developers is: Wait and see.

In a way, people were getting worried that The Division might be the same trainwreck as Destiny was back in 2014. However after experiencing both the open and closed beta, I can safely say it will not be a trainwreck, but it still might have some issues. It all depends on how Ubisoft and Massive will support the game.

The game looks like a technical marvel, however in The Division’s case, the problem is the dubious marketing by Ubisoft and the limitation of information for a long time. No one knew what would be included in the season pass, or if there would be endgame beyond The Dark Zone, which led to a lot of people either cancelling pre-orders or became skeptical whether this game is worth it. The fuel to the fire of this “lynch mob” was an IGN AMA that did not really answer the burning questions, as many thought we would be revealed endgame content. Instead, a few days later we would finally get a Year One “Trailer” for The Division that outlined all the content for the game. It was a great trailer, but information about the endgame and support for future content should have been shared earlier to calm the worries whether A) The game would be worth it, and B) if the season pass is justifiable.

The gameplay is okay; we cannot really comment on variety until the full game releases, as many of the skills, were locked for both beta periods. So we will have to wait for a full release to see how it pans out. The gunplay however in The Division is okay, it is a generic third person shooter with cover mechanics (at this point), and while it does offer a lot of customization, the gunplay felt much better in other games. Though this is probably because the game is an RPG first, and a TPS second so a lack of focus on gunplay is understandable. Still a bit better gunplay would not hurt the game in the end.

The Division is walking a fine line between success and failure, and hopefully, it will not fail as Destiny. We shall see what happens tomorrow on the 8th of March.

 

In denial, and overhyped

So as you can see from the above, both games had a different development, marketing history, and atmosphere plus entirely different gameplay mechanics. How these two games do get compared all the time?

Well for one while they both have different styles there is one similarity that has made fans from both sides latch on the games: Both are online only and promise an engaging experience claiming that it is unique. The issue that manifested itself is that neither games feel that unique, but are overhyped in certain ways. Destiny was expected to have a large and expansive storyline (that pretty much went nowhere and got cut in the end), and The Division promised a lot more in graphics and map size.

However even with the reduction of the map size, and the downgrade of the graphics, The Division for many disgruntled Destiny fans seems like a cure. It promises a mystery (much like Destiny did), and epic loot with interesting mission and endgame activities. As more and more information was being released about The Division, the hype seemed real, and to be honest, even for me, it seems good enough to justify another leap into a new franchise that might actually offer good content. Now at the precipice of release I look at both camps, and the recent heated debates between the two groups.

The Destiny forums and Reddit has been ultimately bitter at the experience Destiny provided, of course not every player feels like this. However when there are daily threads on the official Bungie forum, and Reddit with hundreds of replies regarding the state of Destiny being in shambles, and with no reason to actually play the game unless you are a PVP enthusiast.

It feels like if there was a cocaine dealer that has the good stuff, but, in the end, he cannot make more for his hooked customers.

A lot of Destiny fans are in a state of frenzy, either defending or bashing the game, which results in The Division getting dragged through the mud. Comparisons are made, and the game is judged on by some players as how it is not an FPS, and the defenders of Destiny just whisk it away as: “Not having a good gunplay”, or “It is Ubisoft it will die out in a month”. My response to these two claims are simply (as an Ex-Destiny addict is): That game might have godlike gunplay, but the content does not hold up. Sure we do not know how many missions, what side activities and other stuff The Division have, but based on the beta it sure looks more coherent and better built up than Destiny.

The Division, on the other hand, seems to be lacking in interesting gameplay, which might be disappointing for some. Everything seems special about The Division except the actual gunplay, and that is okay, but it might drive players away. The setting is also a bit tiresome though they try to make it an interesting Post-Apocalyptic game. Another problem that might arise is the lack of content for Year Two. While Division has a Year One plan, we do not know how long Ubisoft will be willing to support the new IP. It might end up with the same content drought just like what happened with Destiny if the game does not sell enough copies. Massive Entertainment seems to know where the storyline should go, but if they do not deliver we might get another “Left in the dust online experience”.

It will all come down to how Bungie and Activision response, and whether The Division will be a success. In any case, The Division currently has the edge over Bungie’s product, as no new content is ready to push back against The Division’s hype (Unless that Spring update suddenly gets released this week on Thursday). We also do not know what will happen with the franchise as a whole beyond the: More games are coming from Bungie part.

However, I wonder if just a new sequel to Destiny will be enough as I believe they need to lower their Ego a bit, and second of all actually have the ability to deploy patches and new content much quicker, or at this point The Division might tower over them.

As to whether which game will turn out for the better? Who knows, maybe both games will be awesome by 2017, when Destiny 2 rolls around and fixes every complaint made against the franchise (hopefully).

-Dante-