This week at Bungie, Im packing my bags. You will never see this face again.


There is one question youve all been asking since the Destiny Beta went offline. Weve heard you. Its time to issue an official response. Before we get down to business, indulge me as I cast my own loving look back. Theres something I have to say to my dashing defender of the last safe city on Earth.

Hey, handsome. Miss you. We had a lot of fun together, didnt we?

You were bold. Even in the darkest corners of Old Russia, your eyes burned with the same purple intensity that sent so many of your enemies into the Void.

You stood fast in the face of danger. Hive Ogres shook the ground beneath your feet. The Lord of the Iron Banner put your skills to the test. Yet, after every mission, you returned triumphantly to the Tower. Humanity had nothing to fear not on your watch.

You were brave.

And now, you are gone.

You and millions of Guardians just like you. You helped us build a better world all of you. But as great as that place has become, its a place that wouldnt make sense to you anymore. Too much has changed.

Ill remember you, and millions of Guardians like you, for the things you taught us. Thank you for letting us learn from your adventures. We promise your sacrifice will not be in vain.

See you starside.


If the rest of you havent gathered the painful truth from the eulogy yet, our Beta characters wont transfer to the final version of Destiny. The vaults have been cleaned out, too.

Step away from this update and take a walk. Have a good cry, or howl at the Moon. Well be here when youre done

Welcome back.

What you just experienced is something weve been through countless times here at Bungie. We feel your pain, and then some. Making a game requires iteration and progress. When we reinvent the world where the Guardians live, sometimes we have to leave them behind.

Tyson Green is a Bungie designer who thinks long and hard about character ownership. Hes said goodbye to hundreds of Guardians throughout the pursuit of Destiny, and dozens of those warriors had evolved well past Level 8. Hes not the reason why your character is gone, but Tyson can explain why our Guardians wont accompany us on launch day:

Since the Beta, weve continued to tune and adjust the game. The way you earn experience has been adjusted up and down a bunch of times. Items have been added and removed. New features toggled. Although theres no single monumental change, the sum of the tweaks leaves characters from the Beta Build in strange shape that would be confusing at best, broken at worst.

Weve been asked many times if this was a real Beta. It was. We learned a lot from your participation, and were going to tweak, adjust, and in some cases, make some significant alterations that ultimately mean your Beta Guardian cant go home again.

This is the last time well ask you to part with your hero. On September 9th, you can create a Guardian who will keep you company for a good, long time. On a long-enough timeline, you might decide to delete him or her and start over again but that will be your call to make.


There are other worlds than these

If youre still smarting about the loss of your Beta Guardian, were here for you. Everyone in the studio is here for you, in fact. This week, for perhaps the final time, we wiped all the brave heroes that lived in the full build of Destiny. The usual funeral pyre of final screenshots was gathered and set alight.

Matt Bennier is a Senior Artist at Bungie. His exotic protector of humanity struck a final pose in our inbox that began the parade of commemoration and remembrance. Anyone out there still think that Warlocks arent frabjous enough?


Grab your Destiny Companion. Look at your Guardian. Now look at Matts. Now back to your Guardian. Now back to his. Despite your brave service and fantastic exploits in the Beta, it was only your first step into the wider world of Destiny. A small (yet record breaking) percentage of you barely even ventured to the Moon. There is so much left to do so much left to earn and master.

Right now, youre lamenting the loss of your starter gear, those pearls of mayhem of destruction that you carved from the wastes of Old Russia. Look beyond that horizon. We have exotic arms and armaments secreted away adventures you can barely imagine right now.

In time.

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