Destiny 2: how Bungie wants to keep it casual with its massive sequel

A game as large as Destiny 2 can be off-putting to new players, but the Halo developer has an ace up its sleeve

Bungie, the Seattle-based games developer, has a strange problem with its multimillion-selling space shooter, Destiny: the fans play it too much. They have ploughed thousands of hours into the game, the studio's first since it split from Microsoft and stopped working on the Halo series. I've put more than 10 full days into it over the past three years, and I consider myself a casual player.

But it can be hard to convince people to try out a game if they think they're buying a whole new life. "We've joked internally about Destiny 1 being this game where you open it up and inside there's a DVD, and right next to it is a wedding ring," says Mark Noseworthy, the project lead on the game's sequel, Destiny 2, which is released on Wednesday. "You felt: 'Wow, I've really got to commit to this thing, and I can't play anything else.'"