Since the release of Destiny last September, the game has had criticisms here and there, be it impossible bosses, lack of varying missions, or Peter Dinklage. One criticism is that of the story. Destiny‘s main campaign gave you drips and drops of plot while essentially telling you to quench your thirst for lore online, Destiny‘s storytelling mechanic is simply telling you to read up outside of the game.
The story that seemed so crucial, according to a tester for the game, was meant to be included in the game before it was “substantially revised” The tester posted on a deleted Reddit thread that his invitation to play the game before launch from Bungie had him see a markedly different story to the one in the final product.
Since then it has been made clear that the story was indeed changed, lines were re-recorded and it led to a year-long delay for the release of the game that was meant to arrive in 2013.
In official court papers it is stated that “Although Destiny was planned for release in September 2013, the story was substantially revised beginning August 2013″
The lawsuit papers gave away some candid details about the behind-the-scenes at Bungie at the time of development. It is also stated that “After a brief vacation/sabbatical in early fall, O’Donnell returned, worked on the story and recorded dialogue, but wrote no additional music. His supervisor and the audio team did not consider him to be fully engaged in the work of Audio Director. For reasons unrelated to O’Donnell’s performance, the release date was again moved, to September 2014.”
This was also around the time lead writer Joseph Staten decided to leave Bungie, where he has been employed for 15 years in the midst of one of their most ambitious projects ever. Whatever the reason, whether it was one big factor or several small contributing factors, Destiny‘s story was meant to be a lot different than what we were given.
Source:
Destiny Lawsuit Papers Confirm Story Changed ‘Substantially’ [IGN]