IMPORTANT NOTE: This is not a hate thread, so keep your pitchforks down. At least until the next TWAB comes out. But we will be going over a lot of the controversies, problems, failed expectations and broken promises the Destiny franchise has suffered. Be warned. This is a topic that's on the front of every Destiny player's mind right now, and it needs to be addressed and discussed. Bungie's last chance. The Sword of Damocles hanging over the Destiny franchise. The 3rd time's a charm. Destiny 3. We know well enough by now that the Destiny franchise has been one of the most divisive game franchises on the market right now. An equal amount of people hate and love it, and as such it has garnered a reputation of it being the biggest wasted potential of the last 2 console generations. So, before we delve into the discussion of Destiny 3, let's do a quick review of the Destiny franchise's ups and downs over the past 5 years. Destiny 1 was released and it was met with both disappointment and resentment from those that were promised a massive open world game sprawling across vast environment and exotic planets. We did not receive that. What we got was a bog-standard hub world-based looter shooter with a non-existent story. The first 2 expansions were released and they too were met with derision, with both House of Wolves and Dark Below having a mixed reception on release. Then the Taken King came out and turned the whole game upside down, it revamped everything and breathed new life into the franchise. Then Rise of Iron came out in Year 3, and was received with positive praise as well. Now we come to Destiny 2... Ho boy, this is going to be a doozy to write. Destiny 2 was hyped up to be the Destiny game the community deserved. A promise of a compelling story, an even bigger galaxy to explore and countless hours of both story and endgame content. Well... we got a good story! The campaign was effective, coherent, easy-to-follow and it hit all the right beats. On the other hand... we somehow got even less content than we did when we first played D1, with random rolls being completely gutted, pointless loot grinds that granted you meaningless rewards, a pathetic shader system that spat all over the goodwill of the playerbase, the first expansion being a dumpster fire and the second expansion being an unfocused afterthought. And once again, history repeats itself with the 3rd expansion Forsaken 'fixing' nearly every problem the game suffered from. But here is where history doesn't repeat itself. Instead of a 4th expansion that built upon the success of the main expansion and gave the community more of what it wanted, we got... The Annual Pass. 3 pieces of content spread out over a 1 year period, with seasonal events sprinkled in between. At first we thought "Hmm! That's... interesting. I mean, it's not like they can make the same mistakes all over again after they just released Forsaken! How bad can it b--" And then it came out. And people were not happy. We are now approximately a week and a half away from the Season of the Drifter, and the community has remained as bitter and resentful as ever. I doubt many of you are holding your breaths in giddy anticipation after what the next season will be bring, because we've reached the point where we're... tired. We're tired, exhausted and fed up. We just want the franchise to become good again, to have it become the franchise it deserves to be. And for Bungie to grasp the severe reality of their predicament. [i][b]TL;DR The Destiny franchise is a giant ball of wasted potential and the hope of a good sequel is fading quickly.[/b][/i] And so, we at last come to the center of this shrubbery maze. The gooey, sweet center of this chocolate eclair of a topic... How can Bungie ever hope to succeed with a 3rd sequel, given the sordid past of this franchise?