Destiny 2 Game Director to step down ahead of The Final Shape release

Destiny 2 Game Director Joe Blackburn has announced his retirement, months before The Final Shape is set to release.

Destiny 2’s The Final Shape will mark the conclusion to the ongoing Light vs Darkness saga. For the past couple of years, the storyline in the game has been moving progressively towards the epic finale.

While the expansion was slated to be released in February this year, it had to be delayed until June 2024 due to a few unforeseen circumstances.

With Destiny 2 The Final Shape moving into the final end-to-end testing stages, Game Director, Joe Blackburn, has announced that he will be retiring from his position at Bungie to explore new avenues. In a long and emotional post on X, he thanked the dev team for their efforts behind the game that everyone has come to love.

This ritual 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.

— Joe Blackburn (@joegoroth) January 31, 2024

He said, “Heading into this milestone, I’ve gotten to play 100s of hours of The Final Shape, and what the world-class talent here at Bungie has created has quickly become (one) of the things I’m most proud to have worked on throughout my career.”

While Joe Blackburn won’t be quitting immediately, he will be passing the leadership torch to Tyson Greene in February when the end-to-end testing begins. The latter has been an integral part of Bungie and was influential in creating Exotic weapons for Destiny 1, as well as the PvP mode in Halo.

The Game Director further added that he would be taking a big break from social media but would be seeing others in the Tower in Destiny 2. He said, “I’ve still got some time before I pass the torch, but as I look forward to taking a big break from social media, I know I’ll see y’all around the Tower. It is going to be great to play Destiny alongside all of you.”

Following Blackburn’s exit, it will be interesting to see the direction that Destiny 2 takes with Tyson Greene as the new Game Director.

For more information on the game, be sure to check out the best Destiny 2 PvE weapons, and everything you need to know about the Destiny 2 Riven’s Wishes event.