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With news of Destiny 2 receiving its final update and coming to an end still circulating on the web, some folks are looking to what could've been – including a, erm, dating sim…?
Yes, you read that right – and you honestly probably aren't all that surprised if you've been in the community for a while yourself. Folks have made jokes (or are they?) about a Destiny dating sim before, as they do in every online game's community, but now, Bungie veterans are actually responding to them.
Following one fan's thread requesting "the dating sim we deserve," former community lead Liana Ruppert replies that the developers have indeed considered it.
"Fun fact, the team actually made one, but leadership was very Hard No that nobody wanted romance or silliness," she writes. "Very Dream Daddy inspired lmao. It was fun getting to be a small part of it." Dream Daddy inspired, you say? If only this came to fruition.
Ruppert isn't alone in revealing what could've been, either. Veteran senior narrative designer Robert Brookes, who now works at CD Projekt Red, chimes in, too.
Myself and two other narrative team members (who both CAME from romance game design) had an entire pitch deck for one complete with costs and real hard metrics on returns. Never got anywhere 😔June 22, 2026
"To be fair, the dating sim that was made was a part of the 'Carnival' event Bungie used to do, where devs had a week to make fun prototypes," Brookes clarifies. "So, it was never a full-fledged project. That said, we did pitch that as a full-fledged project every year."
I mean, I'm still interested – and besides, it does still sound like there was quite a bit of substance to it, even if it wasn't a "full" game, so to speak.
As Brookes goes on to say, "Myself and two other narrative team members (who both CAME from romance game design) had an entire pitch deck for one, complete with costs and real hard metrics on returns. Never got anywhere."
That's… sad, to say the least. In other words, it could've gone somewhere, but it didn't. It's not too difficult to pick out why that's the case, though – even Brookes himself admits as much.
To be fair the dating sim that was made was a part of the "Carnival" event Bungie used to do where devs had a week to make fun prototypes. So it was never a full-fledged project. That said, we did pitch that as a full-fledged project every year. https://t.co/rupVRyFNNEJune 22, 2026
"There's a *very* specific audience for romance content, and a substantial part of that does not play FPS games," put simply. But it could've bridged that gap. "You grow a brand by finding new ways to introduce people to your world, and this would've done that (and also deeply interested some already-existing players)."
I can certainly see it. Comments prove so, too, with somebody exclaiming, "I would've paid real money for this."
Others don't feel like a dating sim would fit well within the world of Destiny and Destiny 2 – but if you ask me, it's worth a shot. Are you listening, Bungie?
