With Steam launch concurrents at an all-time low for Destiny 2's latest expansion, I think Bungie is finally paying the price for years of mistakes—the biggest being the time it removed paid content

Ikora and the Guardian.

This week, a new expansion launched for Destiny 2. The Edge of Fate marks the start of a brand new saga—and ushers in a major overhaul to some key systems, seemingly aimed at making the game more accessible for newcomers and more sticky for its remaining playerbase. In theory, then, this should be a big moment—a new adventure, and a shot in the arm for an aging shooter.

In reality, things look very different. Anecdotally, where once my Steam friends list would be a grid of green squares each new Destiny expansion—lapsed players jumping back in to get a fresh taste of Bungie's still peerless gunplay—The Edge of Fate was met with indifference. And the numbers seem to back up my experience. The two previous Destiny 2 expansions, Lightfall and The Final Shape, peaked at over 300,000 concurrent Steam players on the day of their launch. The Edge of Fate? It topped out at 99,193.