Why Did Bungie Kill The Loot Cave In 'Destiny' Last Year?

Remember “Destiny’s” Loot Cave? The popular location in Bungie’s sci-fi shooter where players would spend hours of their time earning loot?

In late September, Bungie got rid of the Loot Cave with update Hotfix 5, and during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, Bungie User Researcher John Hopson explained why.

"They were very weak enemies that didn't drop very good loot," Hopson said, referring to the enemies inside the cave. "The funny thing is that we knew about [the cave] before launch, we knew that this was potentially exploitable activity, but we didn't care. The actual drop rate per minute spent is not any different than anything else.”

Hopson said the Loot Cave wasn’t actually as advantageous as players believed.

"So you actually will get less loot [from the Loot Cave] per hour than you would just playing the game. But the players weren't doing the math that way," Hopson said.

Why did Bungie ultimately decide to get rid of the Loot Cave? Simple. Too many players were complaining -- about each other.

"The time of the Loot Cave was the highest peak of players reporting each other for cheating," Hopson added.

The Bellevue, Washington-based company addressed several other important features of the game with Hotfix 5 in late September. The cave had become a popular destination for "Destiny" fans, a place that would spawn new enemies infinitely, allowing players to take part in endless assaults.

“The Loot Cave was actually pretty controversial,” Hopson added.