Big news this week from Bungie, Joe Blackburn is going to be stepping down after The Final Shape gets playtested end to end. Today I want to have a look at Joe’s statement, plus we’ve got a new incoming Game Director with a lot of Bungie history behind him, and we’ll have a look at what this means for the future of Destiny 2.
Joe Blackburn put out a thread on X, formerly Twitter yesterday giving us the details.
“Next month, The Final Shape will be hitting one of its most critical internal milestones: a ritual we call the End-to-End playtest. This ritual has been a key part of development since Forsaken.”
“It’s multiple days of consecutive internal playtesting that not only generates incredibly valuable closing feedback on everything coming this summer, but also spiritually kicks off a shift towards bug fixing and polish work.”
“Heading into this milestone, I’ve gotten to play 100s of hours of The Final Shape, and what the world-class talent here at Bungie has created has quickly become of the things I’m most proud to have worked on throughout my career.”
“This ritual will be especially meaningful to me personally, as it will also serve as a moment to pass the torch of Destiny 2 Game Director to the next era of leadership as I head on a new adventure outside the walls of Bungie.”
“As we hit End-to-End next month, Tyson Green will take the reins as D2 Game Director. If you’ve followed Bungie for any length of time, you’ve heard his name. From Halo PvP to the creation of Exotic weapons in D1, Tyson has been a critical part of Bungie’s legacy since Myth II.”
“As a deeply invested Guardian before starting here at Bungie, getting to be a part of the Destiny 2 team has been the privilege of a lifetime. I am and will forever remain a lifelong Bungie fan and believer in what the teams within its walls are capable of. I’ve still got some time before I pass the torch, but as I look forward to taking a big break from social media, I know I’ll see yall around the Tower. It is going to be great to play Destiny alongside all of you.”
First of all, huge thank you to Joe for his time working on Destiny 2. He had a couple of stints at Bungie, first on the raid team, then returning from a brief time at Riot Games, to the role of Game Director. He’s been forward facing, including blog posts, videos addressing the community directly, plus he’s appeared on Twitch Streams, including the infamous overload champion incident. he came out after The Final Shape’s lacklustre reveal and addressed the audience. It’s been a turbulent time while he’s been at the helm, and I think he’s done a pretty good job.
Luke Smith came out on Twitter and followed up Joe’s thread with a thread of his own praising Joe Blackburn for his work.
“First, I remember interviewing Joe to join the Raid team after Destiny 2014 and simply hoping after our conversation that other interviewers would love what he could bring to Bungie as much as I did. They did.”
“Then, when Joe rejoined Bungie as we were working on Beyond Light, ultimately taking over as Destiny 2’s Game Director, he and the team truly delivered on the promise of an Expansion with The Witch Queen.”
“Other than himself, and his family – and his oh-so-lucky future coworkers – no one is as excited as the next step in his career as I am. He will undoubtedly be missed here.”
“Second, Tyson (bless him and his lack of social media) Green is one of the most senior and best developers not only on Destiny 2, but at Bungie.”
“I remember late, late nights on Destiny 2014 playtesting the game with Jason, M.E., and Tyson as we all tried to translate the best feelings from WoW, MMOs, and games we loved into a first-person shooter.”
“I remember Tyson and I working closely during Taken King, he and his teams work to arrange the game into a giant questline, and our repeated attempts to itemize the end game and find a home for Conspiracy Theory-D.”
“Tyson is a humble, thoughtful developer, and one of the best game designers I’ve ever worked with. Your Guardians remain in – through Tyson and the D2 team – incredible hands.”
Luke Smith previously held the role as Game Director for Destiny 2, although he’s working in the background on other projects at Bungie these days.
So, Joe Blackburn is leaving and Tyson Green is taking on the role as Game Director, but who is Tyson Green? He doesn’t have social media, but we know a little about him from various posts on the internet.
Fandom
Tyson keeps a low profile, keeping an eye on the basics. He is much too polite to talk copious smack, and isn’t very good at it anyway. When he isn’t grinding rough edges off of some game system, he’s usually abusing some other one to produce some surprising, filthy hacks.
Though much of his personal gaming time is spent in RPGs where he can crunch numbers in search of the optimal, he takes a keen delight in the unexpected and dramatic. He is often found a driving a Warthog through a crowded hill or trying to incite a large explosion.
Dot Esports
Green is one of Bungie’s longest-serving staff members with over two decades of experience since working on Myth II, an RTS game developed by the company back in 1998. He has worked on a myriad of projects at the iconic company across a variety of genres and is best known for his work on Bungie’s Halo, with design credits in Halo, Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo: Reach.
Green primarily worked on the design team during this time, helping to create missions and Halo 3’s multiplayer, as well as completing work on Halo: Reach’s epic Firefight mode. After Bungie left the Halo series to Microsoft and 343 Industries, Green’s talents were repurposed for Destiny, where he has remained a constant throughout both the main game and its sequel.
Blackburn himself called Green a “critical part of Bungie’s legacy” since the days of Myth II, which is high praise, and it’s clear the Destiny franchise is in safe hands with someone of Green’s caliber and experience at Bungie.
Halopedia
Tyson Green, aka Ferrex, is a senior designer at Bungie. He is believed to be the inspiration for the Mendoza/Kappus character model from Halo: CE and also has his own easter egg in the game. Green moved on from Campaign level design after Halo 2[1] to become the Multiplayer Design Lead for Halo 3.
Quote from the Halo 2: Collectors Edition DVD: “Yesterday before the demo, we had all this stuff that we were just throwing in, and finally something began to catch and we started moving. But all this stuff that didn’t exist two hours earlier, is all of a sudden in the demo ready to show to people. That’s when it’s the most rewarding, the most fun, to be doing this sort of stuff is when it clicks.”
Joseph Staten: “Of all the people on the team, Tyson Green and I are probably the people who are most frightening for Jason Jones and the programmers. We are the most crazy-scripting, crack-smoking, ‘This’d be so cool. Damn the frame rate! Let’s pound the code and make these crazy things happen!’”
What this means for the future?
It’ll be interesting to see where this goes with Joe leaving and Tyson taking over. Tyson is a Bungie man through and through, but he’s going to want to put his own spin on things. Clearly he’s had a history with PVP in Bungie games before.
I don’t neccessarily think this is bad for Destiny 2. We’re coming towards the end of a long saga, and after delivery of major projects like this often leaders move onto something else either for a break, or to do something else. I would imagine we’re going to see Joe pop up on other games in the not too distant future.
Tyson is going to come in and this is the perfect moment to stamp his authority on the franchise. We know we’re getting Episodes after The Final Shape, but after that we don’t know. Is Bungie going to continue with yearly expansions, or will it have more of a focus on PVP and mini-updates? We hsve a whole load of questions, but I doubt we’re going to get those answers before The Final Shape. While I am sad for the departure of Joe, given he’s been an excellent Game Director, I still think Destiny 2 still has fuel in the tank for more stories in the near future, and I look forward to what Tyson Green is going to bring to the table.
Let me know what you think.