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Destiny 2 dev Bungie hires ex-Valorant director to work on “new stuff”

With rumours of a Destiny 2 hero shooter in development at Bungie, the studio has former Valorant game director Joe Ziegler to work on one of its projects

Destiny 2 Bungie Valorant director: Destiny 2 character Lord Saladin wearing gold plated armor

Destiny 2 developer Bungie has picked up experienced Riot Games employee Joe Ziegler, who previously served as the game director for Riot’s tactical shooter Valorant, which will now doubt rekindle rumours about a competitive Destiny title that’s apparently in the works.

Around 12 months ago, Ziegler announced he was stepping down as game director for Valorant after working on it for around eight years, helping design the game before launch and shape its direction post-launch. At the time, he said that he was remaining at Riot to work on something secret, but after a year of assisting with whatever that project was, he’s joining the team at Bungie – but it doesn’t sound as if he is going to be working on Destiny 2.

His Twitter bio now lists him as a game director at Bungie, rather than strictly on Destiny 2, and his tweet announcing the news, which was spotted by Forbes writer Paul Tassi, says that he is working on “new stuff that hopefully will one day get to be played by you all”.

Bungie is working on plenty of new projects at the moment. Some are confirmed, some are rumoured. Some are based on the Destiny IP, and some are completely new IP. So what could Ziegler be working on?

With his experience in crafting Valorant into one of the best competitive FPS games, it’s likely that the highly-rumoured but currently unconfirmed competitive spin-off for Destiny 2 is the project he’ll be joining. Over the last couple of years, Bungie job postings have suggested that a competitive game set in the Destiny universe is in the works, and that it’ll be a hero-based shooter similar to Overwatch, Apex Legends, or – you guessed it – Valorant. While not definite, this seems like the most natural fit for Ziegler.

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Despite being unconfirmed, a Destiny hero shooter is a concept that has been met with a lot of support and excitement from fans of the game. While Destiny 2 does have its competitive PvP Crucible, it is often given lower priority compared to the rest of the game’s massive PvE offerings. A competitive-focused title would certainly alleviate some of the complaints players have had around Destiny 2’s PvP modes.

While Ziegler could be lending his wealth of knowledge on any of Bungie’s upcoming projects, bringing in someone with his skillset and experience with Valorant will get tongues wagging once again about this rumoured hero shooter. For the meantime though, you’ll have to keep ploughing on with some of the best Destiny 2 PvP weapons in the Crucible.