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Leading up to, and following the release of, the original Destiny game back in 2014, many small channels found themselves growing at an extraordinary rate. Those focusing on Bungie’s hotly-anticipated new IP found rapid success. There was a demand for videos highlighting Destiny information, speculating on new DLC content, and providing guides on how best to play the game.

The original Destiny was a title that required players to search outside of the game for deeper coverage of the story and lore, and to hunt down strategies for completing activities and understanding gameplay mechanics, which were otherwise poorly explained. The original Destiny was the perfect game for YouTube content creators, and while focusing on one title and pigeonholing yourself is usually seen as a bad idea, this game seemed like risk-free deal.

Of course, Activision and Bungie also loved the free/lightly-compensated marketing that these YouTubers provided. Advertisements that are (or at least come across as) honest and genuine are invaluable. It’s easy to poke fun at these “influencers,” but you shouldn’t underestimate their reach and ability to, well, influence.

Then Destiny 2 launched, and while it has scored high in reviews, a large portion of the hardcore player base (i.e. those still playing after 20+ hours) have now started to grow loud with complaints, expressing their disappointment with the game. Common targets are the microtransaction-heavy Eververse, which has managed to infect even free seasonal content, as well as the lack of communication from the developers.

Now even the YouTubers who made their names producing Destiny content are seeming to doubt the franchise, and are either showing a loss of interest in the game themselves, or are suggesting that their audiences no longer care.

In his weekly Destiny 2 Xur video, Datto (780,000 YouTube subscribers) said that “this might be one of the last Xur videos [he] does for a while,” and that his viewers can expect Fortnite and Overwatch content to go up over the weekend.

He also tweeted the following, regarding the new Destiny 2 Faction Rally event:

Gothalion, who has garnered over 800,000 Twitch followers and 300,000 YouTube subscribers, announced that he’ll be “separating his channel branding away from [Destiny] to promote future growth.”

Hey buds. Short and sweet here. I love Destiny. Always will. Always have. But its 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 thankyou 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!

MoreConsole (840,000 YouTube subscribers) has a channel “dedicated to covering Destiny.” In a recent video he exclaimed, “Oh god, where do I begin? Can we not go a single week without Destiny 2 s***ing the bed?” He also noted the “poor communication from Bungie,” before calling the latest Faction Rally event “a mess.”

Whatever your opinion is of creators like these, you’ve got to agree that this severe reduction in community support will be a significant blow to Bungie and the franchise. These guys have opinions that matter to millions of people, and their influence works both ways.

In other Destiny 2 news, this fan comic pokes fun at Tess Everis’ exploitative nature, the game’s development was apparently rebooted in early 2016, and Bungie has revealed the dates for the next Iron Banner.

Source: Datto (YouTube, Twitter), Gothalion (Twitch, Reddit), MoreConsole (YouTube) via Reddit (1) (2)