I am by no means the first person to be saying this, but Bungie’s decision not to support cross-saving is very dumb. It’s one that forces a difficult problem onto their biggest and oldest fans, undermines the value of the persistent world they’ve created, and trivializes the hundreds of hours players invest in forging a Guardian they hope to be truly proud of for years to come.
In 2014, as we crept closer and closer to September, everybody was talking about Destiny. It was to be the first in a new mega-franchise from the creators of the critically-acclaimed Halo franchise, and with cartoonish amount of money funneled into its grand development to boot. After the Public Beta dropped, I went from optimistic to sold. I sang its praises to all my friends, many of whom were until then exclusively PC players, and convinced them all to join me on PS4 for what would be an exciting adventure. By the time of its released, I had amassed a crew of about 12 friends and friends-of-friends, many of whom had purchased their PS4s specifically for Destiny. One of my friends couldn’t afford a PS4 at the time, opting to play instead on PS3, but by November was able to join us.
While the game wasn’t everything that was promised, playing with a team of people made it special. Through my closest friends, I was introduced to some of their friends, many of whom I ended up forming great relationships with. I remember running the game’s inaugural raid, The Vault of Glass, for the first time, where 4 of the 6 players’ common friend was unable to make it in time for the run. Six hours later, after fighting, dying, and cooperating through an intense labyrinth with a horde of strangers, we were a team. We went on to partner through all of the game’s toughest challenges. We had formed our own little community around Destiny, which naturally spilled into other games. Three years later, we’ve all moved onto other games, but many of us together.
The announcement of Destiny 2 drew us all back into the fold. The teammates who I hadn’t kept up with were reaching out again, discussing our impending reunion. Then Bungie announced Destiny 2’s PC release. At first, it was exciting. Then, it was a dilemma. We all had PS4s, and had all already played extensively there, but many of them were PC players at heart. The deal-breakers began, with some finding 1080p too blurry for their taste, and others finding 30 frames-per-second too slow, ultimately declaring they’d be making the shift to PC. Others were swayed by their existing experience on the console, as well as the relationships they’d built there. Plus, they weren’t all sure their PCs were up to the task yet, and it would be some time before they could afford the necessary upgrades. Couple that with the month earlier release date, and they’d made their decision.
There had been a schism in the community. But some of us as kids spent Easter Sunday at a Catholic church and Christmas service at a Lutheran one, so we knew what we were going to do. Buying the game twice didn’t seem like too excessive of a plan for me. Another $60 wasn’t ideal, but if it meant playing with all of my friends, it was a small price to pay. I remembered my friend who played Destiny on PS3 for two months before bringing his character over to PS4, so I was hopeful my friends could all eventually make the same transition from PS4 to PC. Then Bungie ruined everything.
There wasn’t much speculation over whether Destiny 2 would support cross-saving. Everything in Destiny is already saved server-side, and they’d previously demonstrated the capability for PS3 and Xbox 360 owners to transfer their data to their respective next-generation platforms. It was assumed something similar would be in place for the sequel with respects to the new platform at their disposal. And what better way to usher players into the awesome PC port than by allowing them to transfer their characters over and continue playing where they left off? I mean, it would be pretty stupid if they didn’t do that, right?
Oh...
On one hand, it might seem a little overzealous to assume Destiny 2 would support this kind of feature. In fact, most games don’t. Overwatch, a game which is also handled through Blizzard’s Battle.net service, doesn’t support cross-saving either. But, Destiny 2 isn’t like most games. It may be a first-person shooter on its surface, but it’s an MMO at its core — a genre that is rooted in investing substantial amounts of time into highly personalized player-characters. Games like Final Fantasy XIV support the same character across both its respective platforms because making an MMO character exclusive to one platform would be ridiculous. Downright stupid, you might even say. Diablo III, another game powered by Battle.net, also supported the transfer of player data from one platform to another (albeit exclusively between consoles) because they recognized the significance of a persistent character in a game of its type. These characters have value, and so do these gaming communities. Players understand this. Bungie, apparently, does not:
“Hopefully, you’re going to find a platform where you’ve got friends and stick to that one,” [Destiny 2 art director Mike Zak] told USgamer. “If you don’t, you can use our new Guided Games system for clans to make new friends.”
It’s not very comforting to see the developers showing such little regard for the friendships and communities that have flourished through their game. It stings even worse to see them use it as an opportunity to promote their new matchmaking features. It’s nice that they’ve added this Guilded Games feature, but that they show no effort in salvaging or transferring existing clans and communities from one platform to their newest one is disappointing. To Bungie, your friends are replaceable, and they’ve got just the trick to get you friend-dating again. Good to know…
Needless to say, fans aren’t very happy about this:
“I’ve played since long ago with my son on PS3/4 … now he’s off with his PC brethren I can’t see me getting it just to play on console with him if he has to repeat all the content … Dumb move Bungie …” — Greenscreener
“… was really hoping I’d be able to play on PC with gaming community there, but still be able to hop back on xbox to play with my brother who introduced me to Destiny in the first place.” — TwelfthSovereign
“I would’ve gladly bought the game on both my pc and my Xbox if it had cross saves. This hurts.” — nazz4232
“I hear that the Destiny team are big on bringing players together. But look at their actions, not their words.” — LawlessCoffeh
Bungie has been in a deficit of faith amongst gamers since the release of Destiny in 2014. Every piece of additional content since has been sold on the promise of what it fixes about the core game. Regaining the trust and respect of the players has been an ongoing narrative throughout the development and press coverage of Destiny 2. So it’s surprising to see them jeopardize that already-rocky relationship with their audience even further by undermining the strongest element of their game’s staying power. These friend groups and communities are the reason Destiny still has a pulse at all, and it seems the team is using what life they have left to give those communities the finger.
We know they have the technology to support this kind of feature, and we know that thousands of players would buy multiple copies of the game if it meant staying connected with their friends, and yet they refuse to do so. Whatever reason Bungie has to not provide this support, it’s a reason that doesn’t put the players first. We often correctly assume we aren’t as important to developers as the money we generate for them, but they could at least pretend otherwise. They like to say they care about their community, until the community asks for something. I’ve been optimistic and supportive of the team at Bungie throughout the development of Destiny 2, but the way they’ve chosen to handle something as important to their biggest fans as cross-saves, I can’t excuse. Their players deserve better than this.
With all this said, of course I’ve already pre-ordered my copy. I’ll be playing on PS4, sans half of my closest friends. And I’ll be sure to find new teammates to join me in my adventures across the solar system in Destiny 2, and I might even use Bungie’s Guided Games feature to do it. But making new friends at the apartment complex of dad’s new bachelor pad just isn’t the same, and it hurts that Bungie is putting so many of its oldest fans through it without so much as an apology or explanation. Maybe in the extra month before Destiny 2 hits PC, they’ll see the error of their ways. I hope they do.