Destiny 2 game director Joe Blackburn has announced he will be leaving Bungie next month.
In a thread posted on January 30 to Twitter (now known as X), Blackburn shared that next month, at the start of major testing for the upcoming Destiny 2 expansion The Final Shape, he will be stepping away from the role.
"Next month, The Final Shape will be hitting one of its most critical internal milestones: a ritual we call the End-to-End playtest," Blackburn wrote, adding that it's been a "ritual" since Forsaken. He noted that he's already been able to play "100s of hours" of The Final Shape, and that what the team has created has "quickly become of the things I'm most proud to have worked on throughout my career."
He continued: "This ritual [playtest] 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."
Blackburn then stated that Tyson Green, a long-time designer on Destiny 2, will takeover the position of game director when the playtest begins next month. He said: "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 [Destiny], Tyson has been a critical part of Bungie's legacy since Myth 2."
The Final Shape is scheduled to release on June 4, 2024, and Blackburn says that he has "some time before I pass the torch," but players should expect him to be playing the game alongside them in the future.
In other news, Bungie just announced a brand-new Destiny 2 and Mass Effect collaboration event set for February 13 which will feature Mass Effect-inspired cosmetics and in-game skins for players to purchase, along with a free Alliance Requisitions Bundle.
Here's our list of the best FPS games if you're looking for something new to play, as well as our picks for the best multiplayer games.
