Yesterday, Bungie revealed the next Destiny “event,” a week-long Valentine’s-themed celebration called Crimson Days that contains a new Crucible doubles mode, new Tower decorations, and…that may be it. It’s a small-scale affair that seems to be somehow even smaller than the last Destiny holiday, Festival of the Lost, and miles away from the level of paid DLC. Fans are starting to come to terms with the fact that there simply may not be any paid DLC for Destiny all year, and that these “events” that crop up periodically are going to stay pretty small. The excuse for this is that Bungie is devoting all their resources to a big fall release which nearly everyone believes is Destiny 2 at this point. But is it? At the rate Bungie is producing content for Destiny at this point, imagining a full “sequel” being released eight months from now does seem increasingly unlikely. Bungie is being extra cagey about its plans this year, so much so that I’m losing track of what they’ve officially said versus what inside sources have revealed about their plans. It seems like all Bungie is really content saying is that “something bigger is coming” without specifying when or what, and they have certainly not confirmed Destiny 2 for this fall. They have, however, seemed to have ruled out more paid DLC until then, saying it’s likely just more “events” from here on out. On the inside sources side from places like Kotaku, the message is more clear. Last year’s pace of content was “unsustainable,” which is why they’ve shifted to these smaller-scale events. The supposed plan is to circle the wagons for Destiny 2’s release, at the cost of substantive content until then. That’s the rumor at least. Recommended by Forbes Samsung BusinessVoice: Bringing Life To Business With Rising Technologies Bungie Announces Small-Scale 'Destiny' Valentine's Day Event, 'Crimson Day... EYVoice: A Global Perspective Paves The Way For BioMarin Pharmaceutical Ubisoft's 'The Division' Could Be Destiny's First Real Competition Why 'House of Wolves' Was Actually The Most Important 'Destiny' Expansion MOST POPULAR Photos: The Richest Person In Every State But it’s growing hard to shake that feeling that whatever does come out this fall, even if it’s “big,” that it may be more on the scale of The Taken King once again than vanilla Destiny. First, I have trouble believing that Bungie will ever actually make a game called “Destiny 2.” Using a number like that sets enormous expectations for the level of content the game needs to have. Delivering a sequel with less content than the original is almost unheard of. Rather, I think whatever we see this fall will be Destiny: Epic Subtitle once again, possibly Destiny: The Shattered Suns as previously rumored. Free from the “numbered sequel” requirement, that content package can be pretty much any size they like. Fanboy Wars: An eBook From Forbes The Fight For The Future Of Video Games is a warts-and-all look at the clashes between the video game business and its passionate fans. Why won’t Destiny deliver a full sequel’s worth of content this fall? I know people said the vanilla game didn’t have enough content at launch. [b]but let’s take a hard look at what it did actually deliver[/b] - Four playable zones, the Earth, Moon, Venus and Mars - Three playable classes with two subclasses each - 20 story missions, 11 crucible maps, 6 strikes, one raid Since then, in two minor DLC packs and one major one, though missions, maps, strikes, and raids have grown rather substantially, the core content of the game has not. Only with The Taken King did we get our first real new “zone,” the Dreadnaught (which can only be traversed on foot), and it added one subclass to each class. Do you really think Bungie is capable of pumping out a Destiny sequel at this point with four new zones and three new classes to at least match the level of content we saw from vanilla? I certainly don’t. No way, no how, and I don’t care if they are taking the year off from other DLC. I’d say even if what we get is bigger than The Taken King, I would not expect more than two new zones and one new class. Yet I’d guess it would still cost $60. And you can be certain that’s going to cause its own firestorm down the line. I know Bungie would like to pump out a game with loads of new zones and classes if they could, but I think there’s a fundamental problem with Destiny. It’s too big for Bungie. The original “schedule” sounded pretty great, and was going rather smoothly for year one. The full game/small DLC/small DLC/big DLC year-long pattern was enough content to make the game feel lively and fresh every few months. Fans then expected the pattern to continue with small DLC/small DLC/full sequel this year, but those small DLCs seem like they aren’t coming, and now I’m not convinced the full sequel is either. Bungie has never had to deal with anything like this before. They used to only be concerned with Halo sequels every few years and multiplayer map packs post-launch. This neverending requirement for new Destiny content is a whole new ballgame, and it’s clear they haven’t figured it out yet. The problem is that year one is what the Destiny content schedule should look like, but it’s been labeled as “unsustainable.” Bungie just does not have the resources or manpower to maintain that level of content output, but I worry if they don’t, Destiny’s potential to be the next World of Warcraft in terms of its popularity and level of interest from fans will slip away. I honestly think Bungie is doing everything they can not to let this happen, but they are restrained by the laws of physics at a certain point. I think they definitely have a communication problem, failing to let their fanbase know what’s going on (though I’m not sure they actually know themselves, much of the time), but I do believe they want to create lots of content as often as they can. This year it seems they just…can’t. Ultimately, I think that it’s Activision that has to step up to the plate here and decide that Destiny is worth more than perhaps they’ve already invested. Bungie itself needs to expand dramatically in order to create the level of content the game needs to thrive the way it did in year one. If Activision can pay $5.9 billion for the creator of Candy Crush, I have to believe they can spare a little extra to make sure interest in Destiny, arguably one of their most important franchises going forward, doesn’t wither and die. To reiterate something I’ve said since launch, I have never seen a passionate community form so quickly around a game before. For all of year one, I could write six words about Destiny and 80,000 people would show up to debate it. But in year two, I can feel that interest waning. Without the robust content schedule we saw in year one, it’s losing the magic it once had. This focus on “events” and microtransactions is what’s unsustainable, at least from the perspective of the playerbase, and if all this content is being sacrificed for something that isn’t a full sequel this fall? There’s going to be hell to pay. I know Bungie wants Destiny to live up to its potential, but I worry about their ability to just physically get it done at this point. This series has too much promise for it to be squandered, and yet I worry that’s exactly what we’re witnessing. [b]Update:[/b] Kotaku’s Jason Schreier just posted his own article on “Destiny malaise,” but his inside sources are back, and according to them, a full Destiny sequel has been delayed out of this September altogether, throwing pretty much the entire year into flux. [b]Update[/b]:The big news at Bungie today is that their CEO, Harold Ryan has stepped down from his role as head of the board. The board of directors at the company have said that long time COO Pete Parsons will step into the role. What do you Guardians think about all this? Comment below [b]facebook.com/Destinyonlineps4[/b]