Destiny 2 will head into its impending The Final Shape launch with a new game director, with Joe Blackburn today confirming he is leaving Bungie before the expansion’s launch. Company veteran and Halo designer Tyson Green will now be taking the reins.
Blackburn revealed he was set on leaving Destiny 2 and Bungie after The Final Shape’s “End-to-End playtest” in February and early March. Blackburn said the playtest has been a “ritual” for the game’s development since 2018’s Forsaken expansion—but this upcoming edition of the feedback session will be his last. “What the world-class talent here at Bungie has created has quickly become [one] of the things I’m most proud to have worked on throughout my career,” Blackburn said of The Final Shape expansion’s progress so far.
He also announced his successor, Tyson Green, whose 23-year career at Bungie includes work with some of the original Halo titles as well as Myth II and the Destiny franchise, where he was a lead designer. Green will take over as director during the end-to-end playtests, according to Blackburn, who has not revealed his next role in the industry as yet.
Blackburn worked on Destiny primarily as the lead raid designer throughout the late 2010s, departing for Riot Games’ League of Legends research and development team in April 2019 after the split between Bungie and Activision. He returned to Bungie in 2020 as Destiny 2’s game director, overseeing the introduction of the first Darkness subclass in Beyond Light and a delay to The Witch Queen due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Blackburn’s departure wraps a tumultuous period for Bungie, which has seen further delays to The Final Shape and a less-than-clear plan for support beyond the expansion, an all-time drop in active player count, and mass layoffs with over 100 staff affected at the company.
Bungie thanked Blackburn for his service, while many fans and creators also offered their best for the outgoing director. Others have already begun talking about the future of Destiny 2, including some fans who suggested they were worried about the swap. “[Blackburn] has insane passion for the game and you can tell he cares a lot for both the game and the community,” one fan said, describing his departure as “genuinely a shit thing for us and the game.”
The Final Shape remains on track for a June 2024 release, assuming all goes well with this month’s playtest and no game-breaking bugs rear their heads. Nevertheless, Green and the Destiny 2 team will have their work cut out for them filling the shoes of Blackburn as the game faces its biggest challenge since launch.
