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Bungie Explains Destiny 2’s Recent 20-Hour Outage

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Screenshot: Bungie

Two days ago, Bungie turned off the Destiny 2 servers while the studio looked into a problem that had players apparently losing progress on in-game challenges. This outage lasted a bit longer than everyone expected, with the free-to-play loot shooter remaining offline for nearly 20 hours. So what happened? Today Bungie pulled back the curtain and explained exactly what went wrong and why it had to roll back the game, erasing a few hours of folks’ quest progress in the process.

On January 24 at around 2:00 p.m., Bungie tweeted that it was taking Destiny 2 offline while it investigated an “ongoing issue causing certain Triumphs, Seals, and Catalysts to lose progress for players.” A few hours later, at 5:51 p.m., Bungie tweeted that it had possibly found a fix for the issue and was testing it, but was unable to specify when or if Destiny 2’s servers would come back online. Nearly four hours later, Bungie tweeted for the last time that night, announcing that Destiny 2 would not be playable that evening. Nearly 12 hours later, at around 9:55 a.m, Bungie announced it had finally solved the problem and servers would be coming back online following a hotfix. The nearly 20 hours of downtime had some players worried about the game’s health, and its future. After years of bugs and broken updates, it was really starting to feel like the seven-year-old shooter was being held together with duct tape.

So what happened during those 20 hours and why was the game down for so long, seemingly with little warning? Bungie has explained what broke, why, and how it was fixed in its latest blog post. And surprisingly, the developer is more transparent than you might think, going into technical details of the issue.

According to Bungie, shortly after releasing a previous update for the game (Hotfix 6.3.0.5) players began reporting that many Triumphs, Seals, and catalysts had vanished. Bungie realized that this was being caused after it moved some “currently incompletable” challenges into a different area of the game’s data. To do this, Bungie used a “very powerful” tool that lets the studio tinker with a player’s game state and account. Apparently, due to a configuration error, Bungie accidentally “re-ran an older state migration process” used in a past update. Because of this error, the tool copied old data from this past update into the current version of the game, which basically undid some players’ recent in-game accomplishments

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“Once we identified that the issue resulted in a loss of player state,” wrote Bungie, “we took the game down and rolled back the player database while we investigated how to remove the dangerous change from the build.”

After creating a new patch that removed the mistaken change the issue was fixed, and following some testing, Bugnie deployed the update. However, as a result of this patch, all player accounts had to be rolled back a few hours before the troublesome update went live. This means any player progress made between 8:20 and 11 a.m. on January 24 was lost. Any purchases made during this time got refunded, too.

While it sucks that the game was down for so long and that the team was forced to spend what sounds like many late hours trying to fix their mistake, it’s refreshing to see a developer be so open and honest about what happened and how it was fixed. In a time when games feel buggier than ever and players are fed up with delays, outages, and broken updates, it’s smart to pull back the curtain and show everyone just how hard it is to make, maintain, and sustain video games as complex as Destiny 2.

Hopefully, next month’s new Destiny 2 expansion, Lightfall, and the upcoming Season 20 rollout will go a little smoother than this recent 20-hour hiccup.



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Technology

Destiny 2 Feels Like It’s Held Together With Duct Tape Lately

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Image: Bungie / Kotaku / Kat Ka (Shutterstock)

Free-to-play online MMO looter shooter Destiny 2, released in 2017, is one of my favorite video games. I play it all the time. I have multiple characters. I own all the recent seasons. It’s fantastic. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned for the game’s future, as with each passing season, it seems to become more prone to breaking. In fact, as I write this very paragraph at around 4:00 p.m. on January 24, the game remains offline as Bungie continues to investigate the latest problem. Meanwhile, many players are hoping for a brand-new engine and game, likely in the form of Destiny 3. But things are never that simple.

Earlier today, Destiny 2 was taken offline across all platforms as Bungie investigated players losing progress on triumphs and seals, which operate like in-game achievements and challenges. It’s not the end of the world, sure, but just last week a few players reported losing their characters along with all their progress and items. And before that, it was a new mission not updating properly for players. And before that it was something else. In 2023, after years of updates, expansions, and more, it feels like Destiny 2 is starting to buckle under its own weight.

Taking a peek at Bungie’s official support account on Twitter—which often updates frequently to let players know about upcoming patches, server issues, and other vital info about Destiny 2—you can find a lot of tweets that amount to Bungie going “Welp, this isn’t working. We are trying to fix it. More info later.” Online games not working every day isn’t new and it’s not a problem exclusive to Destiny 2. But is starting to become a more prevalent issue with the aging shooter. Looking at that support account, a lot of the tweets about bugs or broken missions don’t have weeks between them, but just a few days or less.

Anecdotally, my time playing Destiny 2 lately has been buggier than ever. This new season brought with it both cool new heist missions and weird lag that I’ve never seen before. I still run into the problem of the game not counting every PvP match, making us play more to finish challenges and weekly quests. And I’ve just accepted that in-game bounties tied to kills, missions, or other activities won’t always update as they should. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I realize that I and other players I know have just gotten used to Destiny 2 not being reliable. And it seems to be getting worse, not better, as the game expands and adds more layers and systems.

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Look online and you’ll quickly see players suggesting that Bungie needs to move on to a theoretical Destiny 3, a game that likely will happen—and is maybe in development already—but which hasn’t been confirmed. During today’s extended downtime, Destiny 3 was trending on Twitter as players argued over the shooter’s future and stability. For some, the idea of a new engine and fresh slate felt promising, giving hope it would solve many of Destiny 2’s problems. Others pointed out that a brand-new game isn’t easy to make or simple to launch, and would likely be missing features or content at release. Plus, there’s no guarantee it would fix all of the emerging problems.

Personally, I think a new Destiny would likely be a good move to eventually make. It could allow the devs to make something more flexible and able to handle the type of events they’ve spent years crafting and perfecting. But I also am not naive enough to believe it would fix everything or be easy to create. Still, I get the frustration players are feeling as Destiny 2 remains consistently inconsistent.

Like an old PC or blender, Destiny 2 mostly works, but it’s covered in duct tape, dents, and dirt. And every so often you have to kick it or mess with the cord to get it to start. Sure, it still rumbles to life for now, but you’ll probably need to replace it one day. And with Destiny 2, I get the feeling Bungie will be slapping on the tape for as long as it takes for Destiny 2 to survive through the end of its planned roadmap, which will likely see the final season arriving in 2024. Past that, well, I don’t know. Hopefully by then, the game will at least feel more stable and reliable, not worse.

 



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Technology

Overwatch 2’s ‘Sexual Harassment Simulator’ Made A Brief Return

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Image: Activision Blizzard

Trigger warning: sexual assault and harassment.

An inappropriate Overwatch 2 game mode reappeared, but it’s not one to get excited about. The mode, titled “sexual harassment simulator,” was played enough times that it appeared as one of the most popular over the weekend for some players, according to PC Gamer, which spotted the reappearance just before Blizzard quickly pulled it down.

Another “sexual harassment simulator” was discovered in October 2022, but both tasked players with knocking down Overwatch 2‘s female heroes (like Mercy and Widowmaker) while playing as the cowboy Cole Cassidy and repeatedly crouching over their bodies, apparently, as PC Gamer reported, with the word “raping…” until the character in question is labeled “pregnant” as an AI-controlled Torbjorn supposedly fills the role of the baby. This is disgusting on so many levels it’s not even funny, especially because players are forced to play as Cassidy, previously known as McCree, the same name as the ousted Activision Blizzard developer who took part in the controversial “Cosby Suite” meetups.

A screenshot of the custom mode was posted to Overwatch’s official subreddit by user Joyolo13, who simply asked: “What in god’s name?”

“Lol I remember seeing this every day in [Overwatch 1],” said Redditor sw1nky. “Can’t say I’m surprised it’s still around, [to be honest].”

“McCree is back in the game I guess,” said user FoulfrogBsc.

Kotaku was unable to find the custom game mode in Overwatch 2 as it appears Blizzard took the “sexual harassment simulator” offline—for now. So, it seems the company is aware that such a mode exists but might be having a hard time preventing it from reappearing in the game.

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“Inappropriate or explicit content has absolutely no place in our game,” a Blizzard spokesperson told PC Gamer when the outlet asked about the first version of the mode last year. “We immediately removed the user-created game mode once made aware of its existence. We are continually working to improve automatic filters to prevent inappropriate user-created content, and manually removing any that are not caught by the system.”

Kotaku reached out to Activision Blizzard for comment.

While this is at least the second time the “sexual harassment simulator” has popped up in Overwatch 2 specifically, players noted that a similar mode existed in some form in the original Overwatch game. At the time, players posted PSAs to warn the community about the offensive content. Of course, not all player-created game modes are this egregious. But it is concerning that this issue has come up more than once within a few months.

 



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Technology

Fully Playable Left 4 Dead Prototype Discovered 15 Years Later

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Screenshot: Valve

A trove of Counter-Strike maps recently leaked on the internet, including a mod that was the predecessor to the survival co-op game Left 4 Dead. The mod is even fully playable, as long as you know how to set up your own server.

According to gaming leaks streamer Tyler McVicker, the prototype originated as a game mode in Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. Players would assemble in groups of up to four people and play as the terrorists. The goal was to plant a bomb while defending against waves of infinitely respawning hordes of counter-terrorists. These enemies only used melee attacks, which made them the perfect predecessor to L4D zombies.

Valve’s Earliest Left 4 Dead Prototypes Leaked. WOW.

The developers at Turtle Rock Studios clearly thought that the mode had a lot of potential. They polished it further during the development of Counter-Strike: Source, where it was renamed “Terror Strike.” L4D director and Turtle Rock co-founder Mike Booth confirmed the mod’s existence over Twitter. “It was our lunchtime go-to game,” he wrote. “We wanted Valve to release it but never got traction for some reason.” Turtle Rock was known as “Valve South” after Valve acquired it in 2008. They had already started development on the survival co-op, but they didn’t have an advocate within the parent company.

Former Valve writer Chet Faliszek told Kotaku that Turtle Rock had already started working on L4D before he became involved. The game caught his attention, and he became its “champion.” “I was one of the people who checked it out and told Gabe about it at lunch,” said. “I went on so much about it, he said I should just go work on it.” As a result of his involvement, he was able to increase the scope of its production. Faliszek recruited over a hundred Valve developers for L4D after the company had acquired Turtle Rock.

Valve published the zombie survival co-op in 2008. A sequel followed in the very next year Turtle Rock eventually separated from the publisher and became an independent studio in 2011.

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It’s pretty neat that such a prolific game originated as a mod that its creators had been personally passionate about, rather than a carefully planned product. If you want to see what L4D looked like back in its ideation stage, you can download the mod here.



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Technology

RIP To These 14 Games That Died In 2022

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The graveyard is expanding, y’all.
Image: Bandai Namco / Blizzard / Codemasters / Ubisoft / Kotaku / Odette Villarreal (Shutterstock)

There was a time, back in the day, where you’d just buy a finished game and played it. No day-one updates or extra patches—it was simple. These games couldn’t “die” because they simply…existed. But as MMOs and live-service games (or “games as a service”) began to proliferate, requiring online servers and constant support from developers to keep things up and running, so too has the number of games that’ve hit in the graveyard. Please, bow your heads as were solemnly mark this year’s casualties.

There were quite a few, too, from racing sims like Dirt Rally and Project Cars to battle royales like Hyper Scape and massively-multiplayer online role-playing games such as Tera. Not every game on this list is “dead” in the traditional sense, with some still having minor functionality that makes them somewhat playable, but all are no longer receiving developmental resources or updates, effectively making them dead games.

Read More: 12 Games Killed In 2021 That Prove Preservation Is Vital

With that, here are 14 games that died in 2022:

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Technology

Overwatch 2 Brings Back Freezing For Its New Holiday Mode

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Prepare to be frozen in place once more.
Screenshot: Blizzard

Overwatch 2’s various reworks and balance changes have fundamentally altered several characters from their original forms, and that shift means a lot of mechanics that were once key to the original game no longer exist in the sequel. This came as part of a larger change in the game to remove or alter crowd control abilities like Cassidy’s Flashbang and Brigitte’s Shield Bash which make the game altogether faster and more frantic.

The changes include removing Mei’s original ability to freeze her enemies in place with her primary fire (though her ultimate still has the freezing effect for those caught in it), which has been replaced by a slowdown effect. If you were feeling nostalgic for one of the most frustrating mechanics Overwatch had back in the day, Blizzard has put out a new mode for its returning Winter Wonderland holiday event that entirely centers around stopping players in their tracks. If you miss that part of her kit as a Mei main, I get it. If you miss it as someone who was once on the receiving end of her endothermic blaster, I have to ask, “who hurt you?”

Freezethaw Elimination is part of Overwatch 2’s 2022 Winter Wonderland event, which is running up until January 4. The arcade mode is what Blizzard describes as the hero shooter’s version of freeze tag, where your team’s goal is to freeze all your enemies by eliminating them, then they’re left to helplessly watch from their icy prison until thawed by a teammate. The new mode launches alongside returning Winter Wonderland modes Mei’s Snowball Offensive and Mei’s Yeti Hunt, and it really brings home that Mei and her icy disposition will, by default, always be the star of Overwatch’s annual winter event. Unless she gets removed from the game, again.

D.Va’s holiday cosmetics will be available through Twitch drops.
Screenshot: Blizzard

As with all Overwatch events, the 2022 Winter Wonderland event includes themed cosmetics, such as a new Ice Queen skin for Brigitte and an Ice Angel skin for Echo alongside the smaller stuff like weapon charms and sprays. Some of these, including the Brigitte skin, are unlockable through playing Winter Wonderland modes and completing event challenges.

All of this is happening as a prelude for some holiday-themed D.Va cosmetics that will be unlockable by watching Overwatch 2 Twitch streams from December 25 to January 4. This includes a Festive victory pose, which has D.Va’s mech adorned with Christmas lights, and the Sleighing skin, which has both the hero and her mech dressed up for the holidays. Hopefully these Twitch drops don’t fall prey to the same troubles previous events have had, as some players were reporting not having unlocked promised in-game cosmetics after watching Overwatch League streams last month.

Overwatch 2 is in the midst of its second season, which added Ramattra, a new tank hero who’s the leader of Null Sector, one of the antagonistic forces in the game’s upcoming PvE mode set to launch next year. Ramattra is the second unlockable new hero in Overwatch 2 after Kiriko at launch, who was made part of the battle pass, much to the chagrin of long-time players who got heroes for free in the first game. After this pushback, Blizzard made Ramattra slightly easier to unlock on the free battle pass. Still not much happening regarding feedback on its monetization and battle pass grind, though.

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Game Removes Loot Boxes, Players Revolt Instead Of Celebrate

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Popular free-to-play mobile game Brawl Stars is doing something a bit different. In an era where it seems every game is trying to nickel and dime you with more and more stuff to buy, instead it’s removing loot boxes and all random rewards entirely from the game. It’s yet another sign that loot boxes are likely to become a relic of the past as lawmakers and players push back on the random rewards. But that doesn’t mean Brawl Stars players are universally happy about their removal.

Released in 2019 for phones and tablets, Brawl Stars mixed cute characters with MOBA-like gameplay and some battle royale elements. The end result was a fun top-down competitive action game that I played for weeks and weeks. But since I stopped playing, millions have continued to enjoy it: Brawl Stars has made over a billion dollars in profit for Supercell and still has an active player base and community. Now, Supercell has removed all loot boxes from the game, and reaction to the change is oddly mixed.

Announced in a Brawl Talk video posted last week, Supercell’s latest update to Brawl Stars has removed all random rewards from the game. These boxes were mainly used to unlock new characters in the game. Since its release three years ago, Brawl Stars has heavily featured loot boxes as part of its rewards. But with yesterday’s update, that’s no longer the case.

Supercell / Brawl Stars

“No more probabilities, no more random rewards, and no more playing the guessing game when you unlock Brawlers,” said the game’s lead designer Frank Keienburg in Supercell’s Brawl Talk video.

Yesterday, as part of this update, all unclaimed boxes were automatically opened and all the rewards were given to players accordingly. Moving forward, Keienburg and Supercell say that all rewards—including its battle passes—will be replaced with “different, deterministic rewards, some of which are new to the game.” Now, players have a new battle pass-like feature, The Starr Road, which lets them unlock all characters for free via grinding. Players can now just buy any brawler they want with gems, instead of randomly buying dozens of loot boxes to maybe get a specific hero.

“We’re making this change for a few reasons,” continued Keienburg. “Mainly, moving away from probabilities and chance, which will make things more fair and predictable for you. It also gives you clear and exciting goals every time you play the game.”

Of course, there’s also the possibility that Supercell and other devs are removing loot boxes as various governments around the world begin cracking down on them with proposed new laws and regulations.

While I think removing loot boxes is a good thing and something worth celebrating—especially as mobile games continue to be some of the worst offenders with even good games like Marvel Snap including predatory purchases of over $100 or more—the community reaction is far less positive. While some players seem happy about the removal of random reward crates, others expressed disappointment. The comments on the Brawl Talk video has players rallying against the devs and demanding boxes return to Brawl Stars.

Why? For some it seems that the excitement of a loot box outweighed the frustration that often accompanies them. Others suggested they now have little interest in playing the game since random rewards are being removed. (I think some of these people need to stop and think if they really like Brawl Stars or just like pulling a virtual lever on a slot machine…) We saw something similar to this happen with Overwatch 2’s release, where some players were angry at the removal of loot boxes and demanded they be returned to the game. And while I agree that progression in Overwatch 2 sucks at the moment, I’d rather Blizzard figure out a way to fix that doesn’t involve bringing back loot boxes, even if it did give you a lot of free ones before.

The reality is that as games continue to become more and more popular, more countries will begin investigating the industry and how it makes money. And loot boxes are likely never to return in vogue as long as so many governments are leading crusades to regulate or outlaw them.

 

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New Overwatch 2 Heroes Will Be Easier To Unlock For Free

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Image: Blizzard / Kotaku / Pablo Wilson (Shutterstock)

Free-to-play shooter Overwatch 2 is launching Season 2 tomorrow and with it a brand new tank character, Ramattra. And like last time, you can either buy the premium battle pass to unlock the new hero instantly or you can grind the free path to eventually gain access to him. But this time, following complaints from players, Blizzard is making that second option easier.

Released earlier this fall, Blizzard’s hero-based competitive shooter hasn’t had a great first few months. Between server issues, bugs, characters being removed from the game, pricey skins, and issues with crossplay and support mains, well it’s been a giant mess.

One of the most controversial issues involved Kiriko, a new support character added in the game’s first season. If you bought the battle pass, you got the new hero instantly. However, for players who didn’t buy the pass, you’d have to grind to level 55 to unlock her. Considering how much of a slog it was to level up the battle pass, not many were happy about this. Leveling up the pass took a long time, and involved playing a lot of matches and completing boring or specific challenges—like pin five enemies with Orisa’s spear—that didn’t pay out much XP. Now, ahead of Season 2’s launch tomorrow, Blizzard is promising an easier path to unlocking its new tank for free.

Blizzard

On Twitter, Overwatch 2 game director Aaron Keller tweeted that Blizzard had reviewed data from Season 1 and decided to move Ramattra from tier 55 to tier 45 in the battle pass. And some challenges will be made “easier” to complete.

“Hey, all! Quick update on some changes coming to Season 2,” said Keller. “After reviewing data for Season 1, we’re moving Ramattra into Tier 45 of the Battle Pass and making a few more weekly challenges easier to complete. Excited for you all to see everything new in Season 2 starting tomorrow!”

This is part of Blizzard’s ongoing efforts to make progression in the shooter “more rewarding.” Of course on Twitter, players were mixed. While many seemed happy about the change, others were still upset that the hero was locked behind such a high tier of the pass, suggesting a lower tier would be better.

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Now, it should be noted that unlike in the original Overwatch—which added all characters for free for all players with no restrictions—Ramattra will still be locked behind a paywall unless you grind. But at least now the grind will be less terrible and once you hit 45 you can stop focusing on challenges and the battle pass and just enjoy your new character. Well, unless Blizzard removes him like Mei or Bastion for a few weeks.



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Blizzard Hears Fans On Overwatch 2 Battle Pass Complaints Slug

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Image: Blizzard

One of the most contentious things about Overwatch 2 has been the beloved hero shooter’s shift from paid game to free-to-play download supported by grindy battle passes. Blizzard now says it wants to address those concerns moving forward, ironing out the game’s progression in future seasons so that players feel “more rewarded just for sitting down and playing.”

“For Season 3 and beyond, we’re looking at a mix of Battle Pass changes, more interesting Challenges to pursue, and more exciting play-focused progression systems for you all to dig into. We’ll be able to talk about some of these changes soon, but other changes may take more time to lock-in,” recently hired executive producer, Jared Neuss, wrote in a new update.

In the meantime, Season 2, which starts on December 6 and adds Ramattra, will see each new dedicated event introduce its own unique skin that can be unlocked just by playing. Twitch drops, which give players access to new cosmetics by watching their favorite Overwatch 2 streamers, will continue as well. I don’t think this will satisfy the game’s most vocal critics immediately, but it’s at least an acknowledgement that the status quo isn’t sustainable.

Read More: 7 Tips For Overwatch 2 Beginners Determined To Win

Since the game launched, players have been frustrated by new heroes being locked behind the paid battle pass, the length of time it takes to rank it up, and the high prices of all the skins. The current state of affairs has even had some players pining for the loot boxes from the first game. And all of this has only been compounded by broken characters, delayed patches, and random bugs like a recent glitch that kept some players unable to progress in ranked play.

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For now, Blizzard is working on awarding support players more XP to incentivize them to pick that role and help alleviate queue times. Overwatch 2 is also currently handing out Sojourn, Junker Queen, and Kiriko highlight intros for those who log in during certain time periods over the next week. Blizzard has even turned on crossplay aim assist for console players in all modes except competitive because the alternative was a “bad experience.”

“Players who’ve stuck with us, players who’ve returned, and players who are just now jumping in the fun—thank you for playing Overwatch 2,” Neuss wrote today. “We have an incredible community, and I hope that by opening up about what we’re thinking more, we can keep growing together.”

     

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Overwatch 2 Patch Delayed, Mei Still ‘Temporarily Disabled’

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Image: Blizzard

An urgent update for Overwatch 2 was supposed to have gone live this afternoon, but was delayed at the 11th hour when Blizzard discovered a “critical issue”.

Posting on the game’s official forums, a community rep says:

Today’s patch is delayed as we work to resolve a critical issue. We’ll provide an update here and set the patch live as soon as the problem is addressed.

This includes the upcoming balance changes, bug fixes, including those that affect Mei, and core content updates we have planned for this patch. This delay also impacts the delivery of Overwatch League Viewership Incentives & Perks from the Postseason matches during the period between Oct 30 – Nov 4, along with the rotation of cosmetics in the Overwatch League shop.

Daily and weekly challenges will reset today, as well as the standard shop refresh.

Thanks for your understanding, we’ll be working on releasing this patch as soon as possible. Follow our forums and socials at @PlayOverwatch for updates.

While the “core content updates” and Overwatch League stuff are notable, the patch delay is most pressing for Mei fans, who have been unable to play as the character (but not pay $10 for skins) after she was removed from rotation late last month, saying at the time:

We are temporarily disabling Mei to address a bug with her Ice Wall ability that allows heroes to reach unintended locations. We are working to address these issues as quickly as possible and aim to bring Mei back in our next upcoming patch which is set for November 15.

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The bad news is that this patch’s delay means she’s still MIA. The good news is that Blizzard is now “planning to release this mid-season patch on Thursday, November 17 at 11 AM PST”, and would like to say “thank you to our players for your patience as we addressed this issue.”

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