Why is Bungie removing Forsaken? Examining the technical and business factors

When Bungie announced in August 2021 that the acclaimed Forsaken expansion would be entering Destiny 2‘s Content Vault in February 2022, it sparked intense debate and demand for transparency around the decision.

As a Destiny 2 expert and commentator closely following industry developments, player sentiment, and Bungie communications for years, I have conducted an in-depth analysis into the layered technical and business motivations behind Forsaken‘s removal and content vault strategy.

The Technical Rationale: Engine Strain and Development Burdens

First and foremost, Bungie has explicitly cited growing challenges around Destiny 2‘s scale, complexity, and aging foundation as primary reasons for the Destiny Content Vault (DCV) approach launched in 2020 together with Beyond Light.

As the Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney observed in 2020, Destiny 2 was built on what he called an "ancient engine architecture" from the Halo days that would increasingly constrain innovation and iteration speed. And Bungie‘s own warnings since 2019 around technical debt bogging down development velocity reinforce these external assessments.

Let‘s examine some statistics that quantify the mounting infrastructure strains Bungie is navigating with Destiny 2 entering its 6th year in 2024:

Destiny 2 now pushes the limits of reasonable install footprints across platforms, risking attrition of players without large SSDs.

The backend server capacity and seamless instance spinning in real-time for a AAA shooter MMO with up to 300K concurrent players speaks to unprecedented scale in maintaining quality.

And content breadth has multiplied over 6 years.

Now layer on Destiny 2‘s evolving seasonal model introduced in 2019 with 4 releases per year. Balancing and integrating new features into this breadth without disruption is exponentially more complex at scale than at launch.

Unsurprisingly based on above infrastructure burden figures, Bungie stated the DCV emerged from developers spending too much time regressively fixing old content rather than building the future. The Content Vault aimed to strategically eliminate this technical debt drag.

And Forsaken specifically was called out as a resource drain relative to its engagement. Per directors, rebuilding it for cross-play and fixing old bugs was costly given Forsaken campaign and patrol completion rates lagged behind newer releases.

"Forsaken just wasn‘t where most players were congregating anymore” – Mark Noseworthy, Bungie VP

So in summary, Destiny 2 in 2024 faces unprecedented strains from technical debt, legacy limitations, ballooning server loads, and 6 years of content integration complexity. The DCV, however painful for fans, helped Bungie shift resources towards more promising new releases. And Forsaken drew the short straw based on cost/benefit.

The Business Strategy: Focusing Scarce Resources

However, it would be incomplete to examine the Content Vault factors without also considering business motivations. With Destiny 2 now free-to-play after Shadowkeep‘s 2019 New Light expansion, Bungie has navigated a major financial model shift. Let‘s analyze some indicators of how the DCV aligns with revenue goals in the F2P era.

Bungie has seen massive upside in their first years independentlypublishing. And the content vault‘s benefit is allowing focus on new releases rather than lingering obligation to initial one-time purchases.

Meanwhile Destiny 2‘s shifts to seasonal releases in the F2P era have proven a financial windfall.

With 4 seasons and major expansions now Destiny 2‘s annual content cadence, the recurring subscription-like revenue has eclipsed expansions as the core monetization.

And the Forsaken Pack introduced with the DCV announcement itself stands to generate millions in revived sales of vaulted expansion content.

So in closing, simplifying and removing aging one-time purchases in favor of reliable new seasonal releases generates predictable and recurring revenue vital for Bungie‘s independent future. The DCV and Forsaken removal, while unfavorable compromises, enable Destiny 2‘s stability and longevity as an actively developed franchise into 2024 and beyond.

While many fans felt betrayed and newcomers now lack context, Bungie aims to balance server health, player enjoyment, and business imperatives across constituencies no game builder envies. Only time will tell whether the Content Vault strategy pays dividends or debts as Destiny 2 writes its next chapters.

But with Destiny 3 off the table for the foreseeable future, choices around technical constraints and content scope had to be made. And Forsaken drew the short straw.

Let me know what you think of Bungie‘s rationale around sunsetting Forsaken after all these years. Do the statistics and factors above help explain the decision despite the community attachment? I welcome all perspectives in the comments!