Former Bungie Community Manager Liana Ruppert claims Bungie leadership “wanted” Destiny 2’s Lightfall expansion to fail, raising questions about what went wrong behind the scenes.
When Destiny 2’s Lightfall expansion launched in February 2023, it was met with disappointment from both players and critics. Many called it one of the weakest expansions in the game’s history, criticizing its messy story and underwhelming villain.
The backlash didn’t just hurt Bungie’s reputation, it also hit the company’s wallet hard. Reports surfaced that Destiny 2 missed Bungie’s revenue targets by nearly 50%, following a sharp decline in player numbers in the months after launch, which later contributed to mass layoffs affecting around 100 employees, including longtime developers.
The poor reception and financial struggles were obvious. But what wasn’t clear—until now—was the internal challenges that may have played a role in Lightfall’s failure.
“There were so many elements of Lightfall that could have been monumental”
On Lightfall’s second anniversary (February 28, 2025), former Bungie Community Manager Liana Ruppert responded to a post on X (Twitter) with a surprising claim. Ruppert, who was laid off in Bungie’s October 2023 job cuts, revealed that Bungie’s leadership “wanted” Lightfall to fail.
“Sucks that leadership wanted it to fail – there were so many elements of Lightfall that could have been monumental had the teams been properly supported,” she wrote. “Still proud of everyone a part of it. Swinging around like a manic titan Spider-Man is still S-tier.”
While Ruppert didn’t elaborate further, her statement suggests potential conflicts between Bungie leadership and the development team during Lightfall’s production, or potentially rushed. If leadership wasn’t fully backing the project or failed to provide the necessary resources, it could explain why the expansion felt incomplete and why so many players were let down.
This isn’t the first time Ruppert has shared behind-the-scenes details from her time at Bungie. She previously spoke about workplace “crunch” during the development of The Final Shape, as well as developers’ unfulfilled ambitions for a Destiny 2 player housing system.
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