Destiny's development faced significant challenges, including a major overhaul shortly before launch. Reports suggest that ten months prior to release, Bungie scrapped nearly all narrative assets, including pre-rendered cutscenes, dialogue, story, lore, and much of the content and gear, then rebuilt the game from the ground up with a new story and structure. This drastic change, occurring less than a month before launch, was an unprecedented move for a AAA title and carried substantial risk, potentially jeopardising the company's reputation and finances. The decision reportedly followed the departure of lead narrative designer Joseph Staten, possibly due to pressure from Activision to reduce story focus in favour of more repetitive gameplay. The game's development was also marked by internal mismanagement and communication breakdowns. Evidence from code artifacts and API leftovers indicates that Destiny 2 was developed in parallel with Destiny 1's Year 3 content, but the two teams operated with limited communication, leading to inconsistencies and the omission of quality-of-life improvements from The Taken King into Destiny 2. This lack of coordination, combined with a culture described as having "half the studio trying to recreate WOW, while the other half was trying to figure out how to incorporate halo into that," highlights ongoing management issues. Furthermore, the game's post-launch development has been criticized for being mismanaged, with players noting a decline in development focus and a reliance on recycled assets and content. The seasonal content model, while innovative, places immense pressure on the development team to create unique, polished activities every three months, which can be challenging and may impact motivation and quality. Some critics argue that corporate decisions, including a focus on advertising and franchise expansion over core game content, have contributed to the perception of "development hell".