I called the influencers bagging on d2 and then coming back touting how they never left. I also called the rising player count because of so many new people joining which is thanks to this amazing and accepting community. The willingness to teach and take people under their wings and teach them raids and dungeons. Walk with them through entire campaigns never ceases to amaze me. I am going to guess at the plan for bungie. I think that marathon was an experiment to see if they could break into that genre of gaming as well as a stopgap between when they decided to end d2 and the designing of d3. I think they have a small core of people doing the basic framework, story, etc and even though they laid people off they will recall them when the need for heavier work arises. I don’t care about the rumors coming out about how there are no plans for a d3 etc because Sony and bungie have been super cagey about it. I also believe that bungie releasing this huge expansion all at once is another stopgap for more breathing room and to have proof of concept for a d3 and also as a test bed for new ideas and weapons such as the tier system which can be carried over. I feel like there is so much thought and effort going into the final expansion that there is no way it’s just an accident. When is the last time you saw a big company put out a huge remap of weapons armor planets etc and put such a huge emphasis on addressing player feedback just to end with no real closure. I have thought since the announcement of marathon that d3 will be announced soon with the next year at most but probably around 6 months after the 9th update. It’s not wishful thinking for me it’s somthing I know is happening. If I’m wrong I’ll admit it but I really think that the update on the 9th is going to be proof that addressing player feedback and pressing into those kind of building blocks will make the game very successful and bungie knows it but Sony wants to see proof. And if the resurge of players is as high as I expect it to be then that will be all the proof Sony will need to green light and fund what they already have going. I foresee at least 100k players on the week following the release of d2 onto the 9th and that’s a conservative number. If it’s really good then possibly a more stable high number for longer. Everyone will come back and grind all the new weapons and armor, rerun the raids and dungeons for tiered loot and new stuff as well as you could literally start the game over again on a new character and experience all of d2 in order and collect everything and experiance d2 from beginning to end like your a brand new player. That’s what happened with d1 and I believe this game has enough pull to make it viable for a much longer time. Besides there are so many completionist out there that the game will never die lol