Forget Sony, my concern for Destiny 2's future is still Bungie's love of grinding

rockpapershotgun.com:

As the consolidation of the games industry continues, Sony buying Bungie is the acquisition that might most directly affect me, someone who has played over 2000 hours of Destiny 2. Bungie have said things will continue as normal on all platforms. But beyond the usual issues with consolidation and platformholders buying studios, the concerns I have for Destiny 2's future stem from the same old source: Bungie's own decisions. The grind needs to end.

Sony announced yesterday that they plan to buy Bungie for $3.6 billion (£2.6b), citing their experience with multiplatform development and live service games as two of the reasons they want 'em. Bungie say they'll keep full creative control and publishing independence for the Destiny universe, and that it'll remain a multiplatform game with cross-platform play. But I'm less concerned about what Sony might do in the future than I am what Bungie are doing right now.

The fate of Destiny has always been at the mercy of Bungie's bad decisions shoehorning bad MMO-lite progression elements into a game which is otherwise a phenomenal first-person shooter. With every addition and every change, they weigh the game down with tedious grind, every new feature an opportunity for a new treadmill. It makes Destiny hard to get into, and hard to return to. It's not fun or challenging in any way, and it never has been. Bungie have demonstrated a striking lack of foresight around the problems of grind too.

The 'Armour 2.0' revamp was intended to make character customisation more flexible and interesting but it brought a phenomenal amount of grind. Getting good gear with good stats across three different elemental affinities took forever, plus extra for different builds. I still don't have good