Destiny 2 spent years building up its ultimate villain — and never delivered the payoff

Xivu Arath deserved better, and now she may never get the spotlight Since Bungie officially announced Thursday that live-service development of Destiny 2 was coming to an end in a few weeks, like many longtime players I find myself reminiscing about the good old days and dreaming of what could have been. In light of a Bloomberg report indicating that Destiny 3 is not in development — and reports that Bungie is planning for a significant number of layoffs — some of the franchise’s most interesting plot threads may never get resolved. Among them is all the narrative build-up surrounding Xivu Arath, the Hive god of war, which might never amount to anything. Responding to a post on X about the Bloomberg report, one user suggested that Destiny 3 should begin with a “campaign and massive raid featuring Xivu Arath,” arguing that it would be a “slam dunk massive hit.” Someone replied “you'd be surprised how many times this was pitched for D2.” That someone was Robert Brookes, the former senior narrative designer on the game. He’s credited with working on every update and season, starting with 2020’s Beyond Light all the way through The Final Shape and Revenant before his departure in 2024.