Image: Bungie
Even former staff from Bungie disagree with Destiny 2’s Best Community Support nomination.
The Game Awards 2023 released its full list of nominations last week, but not everyone agrees with the games included. Destiny 2’s nomination for Best Community Support has particularly raised eyebrows, given that it comes in the wake of Bungie’s worst year yet of community support for its shooter.
The company recently laid off around 90-100 employees, many of whom were on the community and social media team according to Bloomberg. That, coupled with the game sinking to an all-new low in concurrent players this week, has understandably raised a bit of controversy over The Game Awards nomination.
Did Destiny 2 deserve its Best Community Support nomination?
The Game Awards nominated five games for Best Community Support this year. These games are:
- Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios)
- Cyberpunk 2077 (CD Projekt Red)
- Destiny 2 (Bungie)
- Final Fantasy 14 (Square Enix)
- No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)
The Game Awards describes its criteria for the Best Community Support category as, “outstanding community support, transparency and responsiveness, inclusive of social media activity and game updates/patches." A few of the games listed, such as Final Fantasy 14 and No Man’s Sky, have made a name for themselves in the industry due to their ongoing updates and community engagement. Destiny 2 fit nicely in this category for a few years running, but this is the first year it seems to truly not belong.
Bloomberg reported that Destiny 2’s revenue had dropped by a sharp 45% this year, causing Bungie to lay off roughly 8% of its staff (90-100 employees). The report also states that the game’s next big expansion The Final Shape has been internally pushed back to a mid-2024 release window from its current February 27, 2024 release date. This means that the game could still go more than six months without a big content drop, spelling trouble for its future.
That might be manageable if the game wasn’t already in trouble right now. Destiny 2 dropped to an all-time low in peak concurrent players at less than 60,000 this month, where it once peaked at more than 300,000 at its best and 100,000 at its worst on SteamDB. It seems that player numbers are steadily dropping month after month, with no sign of picking up again.
Following the game’s Best Community Support nomination, former community manager Liana Ruppert said that, “If it does [win], I will be very proud of [Destiny 2 community managers] Cozmo and Bruno, because they are amazing. But they left them with nothing. Our team has been asking for more people, not laying off half of them.” Her initial reaction to Destiny 2’s nomination was decidedly less measured, simply tweeting: “Hahahahahahahahahahaha.”
Even former staff at Bungie seem to find the nomination absurd. After all, firing staff, delaying expansions and recycling content is hardly Best Community Support Material. This isn't the only controversy brewing around The Game Awards nominations this year, however. Many have pointed out that Dave the Diver doesn't quite deserve its Best Independent Game nomination, seeing as it was developed by a studio owned by the massive South Korean company Nexon, which is worth $18 billion. By very definition, that means it's not an indie game.
