Highlights

  • Bungie replaces Iron Banner Tribute with classic Control game mode due to negative player feedback and pacing issues.
  • Bungie will address scoring and pacing issues in Tribute mode, including adjusting thresholds and clarifying objectives.
  • The Destiny 2 community praises Bungie for listening to feedback and acting quickly, while some speculate about the studio's communication efforts to regain player trust.

Bungie announces that it has removed Tribute as the featured Destiny 2 Iron Banner game mode, replacing it for the rest of the week with the classic capture objective mode called Control. Over the years, Bungie's Iron Banner PvP mode has seen plenty of changes in an effort to keep things feeling fresh. In addition to a vendor reset, aligning Lord Saladin with other Tower vendors in terms of unlocking new rewards, Bungie has also mixed up the game modes being offered during the weeks when it's available. With three appearances per season, each week typically brings a new mode with it, including Iron Banner Fortress, which arrived alongside Season of the Seraph.

Back in September, Bungie revealed the studio had been working on a brand-new Destiny 2 experience for Iron Banner called Tribute. According to the blog, Tribute is a game mode inspired by Supremacy as teams battle to collect crests from defeating opposing players. However, instead of gaining additional points to an overall score, players would instead need to take these collected crests and deposit them into a "tribute station" to earn points. When a certain number of crests were collected, a Hunt phase is triggered, spawning special tribute stations that award extra points. While the mode seemed interesting on paper, it apparently hasn't gone over well with the community, prompting a big change from Bungie.

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Following the initial launch of Iron Banner during Season of the Wish, player feedback has largely been negative towards the Tribute game mode. After collecting a few days worth of data, Bungie has noticed an uptick in matches ending earlier than expected through mercies, shutouts, and pacing, which results in game's ending much faster than anticipated. With the aim of ensuring everyone participating is having a positive experience, Bungie has decided to replace Iron Banner Tribute with the classic Control game mode for the rest of the week.

In the meantime, Bungie revealed that it's going to address the scoring and pacing issues, which include tweaks like adjusting the score threshold for winning, the crest threshold for triggering the Hunt phase, the amount of time it takes to deposit credits at a station, and clarifying the overall objectives. The announcement was a positive one for many in the Destiny 2 community who praised Bungie for not only listening to feedback, but acting quickly on it. Others have been surprised at the constant feedback and updates the account has given, with some wondering why it hasn't been like this throughout the game's 6+ years.

There are those who speculated the constant communication is likely a side effect of the studio attempting to win back player trust after a series of disappointing and upsetting news stories continuing to surface. In addition to massive layoffs at Bungie and the four-month delay of The Final Shape expansion, new reports have indicated morale at the studio has hit an all-time low, with the potential of missing financial goals resulting in additional layoffs, an outright takeover by Sony, and management that is largely not doing much to improve things internally.