‘Destiny 2’ YouTube And Twitch Streamers Begin Looking Elsewhere For Content

The problems with Destiny 2 have taken yet another interesting turn over the past few days. Several major Destiny-centric YouTube and Twitch channels have begun backing from creating content for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC game as it has caught a major case of the doldrums and design decisions have not fostered an environment for content creation.

The importance of YouTube video creators and Twitch streamers to games today cannot be undersold. They essentially act as free viral marketing that game developers and publishers attempt to harness. It is why Activision invited so many content creators out to the Destiny 2 reveal event last year. It is a large reason behind the phenomenal growth of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite: Battle Royale.

Content creation for Destiny 1 was a dream for some and resulted in an explosion of channels like Datto, Holtzman, King Gothalion, MoreConsole, My Name Is Byf, Myelin Games, and many others. These covered everything from the mechanics of the game to deep dives into piecing together the lore and secrets.

Destiny 2 has turned into a title that has simplified the game mechanics and tuned the Crucible down to such a team-shooting focus that it is no longer interesting to watch. The interesting and complex quests to obtain meaningful and powerful weapons are largely absent. Meanwhile, hidden objects, secrets, and lore puzzle pieces are missing as well.

This dearth of content to cover combined with the overall negative state of the game has caused content creators to reevaluate or step back from their coverage on both YouTube and Twitch.

Datto posted a video Saturday describing his thoughts on the state of his channel and how the game doesn’t support quest guide creation or weapon optimizations guides. He still plans to cover Destiny 2 news and updates but is considering looking at Monster Hunter: World and Anthem.

Holtzman lamented the lack of weapon diversity and ability to make power plays in the Crucible as he discussed the state of his channel and his Twitch streams. He also plans to branch out to other games and is considering the same games as Datto in addition to collectible card games like Magic.

King Gothalion sent the following message out to his Twitch followers, captured on Reddit, as he turns to other games to grow his channel.

“Hey buds. Short and sweet here. I love Destiny. Always will. Always have. But its [sic] time to separate my channel branding away from that game to promote future growth.

“Sub badges will no longer be ghosts as soon as my new logo badges are completed and bit badges will be something different soon(tm).

“I love yall and thank you for supporting a transition into more variety. Fortnite streams have been amazing. A lot of fun stuff on the horizon as well! Monster Hunter and Sea of Thieves is going to be a blast. Looking forward to it!”

Meanwhile, lore channels like My Name is Byf and Myelin Games have either scaled back their Destiny videos or begun covering other games like Stellaris or discussing character creation and the Battle Royale genre in general. To be fair though, Myelin did explain last month he was taking a bit of a break to focus on his Ph.D. work.

While Bungie has laid out its roadmap and promised for hidden secrets and collectibles, the overwhelming perception from the Destiny community is the developer will be spending the next nine months trying to make the sequel more like the original. It will be interesting to see if these changes will be enough to satisfy content creators in the face of new competitors like Anthem coming out.