Why Did Bungie Remove Paid Planets from Destiny 2? A Technical and Strategic Analysis

As a hardcore Destiny player and content creator, I was as shocked as anyone when Bungie announced that several planets would be abruptly vanishing from Destiny 2 in November 2020. Mars, Io, Titan, Mercury and the beloved Leviathan raid zone were instantly placed into the newly formed Destiny Content Vault (DCV) with the launch of the Beyond Light expansion.

So why did Bungie remove substantial pieces of paid content that fans had purchased? What drove such a drastic move for a continuously evolving live service game? As I dove deeper into the technical challenges facing Destiny 2 and analyzed Bungie‘s longer term content strategy, a complex picture emerged. In this article, I share key insights on the mantra of "vaulting content to create room for innovation."

The Technical Burden of Destiny 2‘s Ever-Expanding Universe

Before evaluating if vaulting planets was the right strategic move, it‘s important to establish the technical context that largely catalyzed Bungie‘s decision. As a continuously updated game, Destiny 2 faces limitations in terms of:

• Maximum file size and install footprint
• Server capacity and stability
• Game engine tools and infrastructure

Over its first three years, Destiny 2 had ballooned from a 68GB download on consoles in 2017 to a whopping 115GB in late 2020 based on reports. This exponential scope creep was driven by new content drops like Forsaken and Shadowkeep cramming more missions, gear, zones and mechanics into the game.

While fantastic for fans seeking endless hours of loot pursuit in a rich sci-fi universe, even incremental additions were complicating development and testing. Bungie engineers were pushed to their limits balancing innovation and technical debt across client performance, server capacity and build times. Vaulting content became the necessary pressure valve release before Destiny 2 collapsed under its own weight.

But just how "dead" was the vaulted content in terms of usage? Did the sacrifice make sense for underutilized planets that were effectively wasting space and resources?

Pulling Back the Curtain: Usage Statistics of Vaulted Planets

Bungie has not released any official player numbers or activity data regarding engagement with vaulted planets prior to their removal. However, several prominent community figures and streamers have pulled back the curtain based on analytics from veteran players:

Mars Destination Stats (via Datto)

• 12% player time prior to removal (lower 1/3 among destinations)
• Very little time spent on open world patrols or Escalation Protocol

Mercury Destination Stats (via Ebontis)

• 4-5% average player time prior to removal
• Mostly only visited to grab bounties and shoot trees

The picture is quite clear – older destinations added via paid expansions like Curse of Osiris (Mercury) and Warmind (Mars) were effectively dead zones only serving as short bounty and material harvesting pit stops for most players. Their removal delivered massive file size savings with minimal engagement disruption.

So Bungie‘s decision made logical sense by targeting nearly 130GB worth of content that was hardly touched by veterans anymore. But the strategic impacts of deleting paid planets is more complex…

Content Vaulting Strategy – Weighing Innovation vs. Player Trust

On the surface, removing unused or irrelevant content to focus development on new stories and features seems reasonable. But Destiny 2 is not a traditional standalone game – fans have invested hundreds of hours and significant money into amassing god roll weapons and rare titles across soon-to-be-vaulted campaigns.

By paying to permanently remove key planets tied to previous expansions like Curse of Osiris and Warmind, has Bungie violated an unwritten agreement between live service games and their most dedicated players? Even if the content is gathering virtual dust, should companies retain some degree of access for players who helped fund the game‘s early days?

From a business perspective, vaulting does enable Bungie to innovate within stubborn technical constraints across their game engine, servers and client performance bottlenecks. If they had not removed several planets in Beyond Light, we may have never seen the new subclass Stasis or the impressive Europa zone.

However, the narrative damage and continuity issues cannot be ignored. New Light players now start Destiny 2 in a fragmented timeline missing critical origin stories and characters. Bungie themselves have acknowledged that more effort must be made to smooth these transitions and better incorporate vaulted lore.

Ultimately, only time will tell if deleting paid content will pay dividends in the form of more groundbreaking features that outweigh the community backlash and loss of access. For now, the Destiny Content Vault will remain a necessary evil and controversial barometer for gauging player satisfaction.

Reactions from the Passionate Destiny Community

Given Destiny 2‘s sprawling interconnected universe cultivated over years, the concept of removing entire planets struck a strong nerve across its most passionate players. Bungie‘s own forums erupted with thousands of replies overflowing with confusion, skepticism and rage.

Popular YouTubers and streamers echoed similar sentiments. Longtime content creator Aztecross Gaming reacted to the announcement with pure disbelief:

"Content that people have paid for and supported the game with for three years is just vanishing without a trace – poof it‘s gone! I have to say, in all my years playing live service games I‘ve never seen anything so insane."

I share Aztecross‘ frustration regarding forever losing iconic destinations many of us dumped endless hours into fighting the Cabal on Mars or discovering mysteries on Mercury. However, I‘m cautiously optimistic that Bungie can innovate beyond past technical shackles to deliver more next-generation experiences. The recent addition of weapon crafting and upgradeable Glaives in The Witch Queen shows early promise.

Only time will tell if content vaulting pays off long-term by empowering Bungie‘s creative vision. As a ride-or-die Destiny fan, I remain forever loyal to guiding new Guardians on epic journeys across the galaxy. Minus a few less planets of course!