With confirmation that Bungie is going to produce even less for the playlist, its safe to say Bungie is leaving Gambit to die in Destiny 2.
Recently in the “State of the Game” address from Bungie, they discussed upcoming changes and reasonings on why certain features may take longer or won’t be coming into the game completely, and discussed how they felt they achieve their goals for the game. Unfortunately, a lot of the changes do little to ease the fear that Bungie is leaving Gambit to die in Destiny 2.
Gambit has largely remained untouched for over a year and a half after Bungie overhauled some gameplay mechanics with the release of the Witch Queen expansion. Many Gambit enjoyers were hoping with what seemed like a renewed focus on Gambit, we would see new maps, playlist updates, weapon updates, and overall more time and effort into a playlist that felt like it was dying. However, since then it has been pretty much radio silent involving Gambit with only a few minor tweaks and bug fixes but nothing substantial.
New Maps for Gambit in Destiny 2?
Within the “State of the Game” address, Bungie commented on the concerns of the community that Gambit has continued to be left mostly untouched since the gameplay revamp, even acknowledging that they have been quiet since. However, when discussing Gambit getting new maps Bungie stated “…this is an area of the game with lower engagement that would take resources away from more popular parts of the game to shore up”. They did announce they are re-releasing one previously sunset map, the Cathedral of Scars, the first map added back into the playlist in over four years increasing the amount of maps available from three to four. However, they stated they”…don’t have any plans to dedicate more resources to significantly transform Gambit…” outside of a few small updates planned in the year of the Final Shape.
Gambit Playlist Updates
Previously, you had to complete a certain amount of vanguard strikes, crucible matches, and gambit matches to get all your weekly playlists challenges done. This encouraged players to compete in Gambit matches to maximize their weekly playlist rewards, and allowed players to be benefited by completing matches in a playlist that may have not been their favorite. However, Bungie is updating how the playlist weekly challenges for exotic engrams work by allowing you to complete them in any playlist. For some, this change will be fantastic allowing them to complete all their challenges in their favorite playlist, but for playlists that are already lower in population, this will just decrease the available players queueing for the activity. Also, they are removing the freelance node from the playlist and replacing it with Fireteam Based Matchmaking. Freelance allowed for solo players to only play solo players, a complaint for many years was a team of solos facing against a premade stack which often lead to unbalanced matches in favor of the group.
Seasonal Challenges Updates in Destiny 2
Along with these other changes, Bungie also announced an update to the seasonal challenges that require players to complete various content in the game, utilize different weapons, and complete tasks they might otherwise avoid or not know exist. However, Bungie is “…reducing the number of Gambit-specific Seasonal Challenges starting in Season 22…”, further decreasing the need for players to enter into the playlist and causing the population to decrease even more.
Conclusion
With all these changes that will directly decrease the already lower population of Gambit, its likely that this will cause even less updates for the playlist to a possible outright removal eventually. One returning map in four years, and playlist changes that were controversial at best are not enough to keep a playlist alive over time. Bungie has put a lot time and passion into Gambit over the years and a loyal community of players has enjoyed the playlist for years. However, without some drastic changes and updates to the playlist, we could slowly be seeing Bungie leaving Gambit to die in Destiny 2.
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