Bungie has hired Hilary Hidey as Destiny’s global franchise director as the studio works to repair contentious changes introduced in Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate ahead of the forthcoming Star Wars-themed expansion, Renegades.
Hidey announced the move on X (formerly Twitter), saying she’s long loved the franchise and is excited to help shape its future. In replies she confirmed she’s been a player since the original Destiny era. See the post on X.
Her public profiles — including a MobyGames entry linked from her X profile and her LinkedIn work history — show she recently left BioWare after contributing to Dragon Age: The Veilguard. She was part of the Mass Effect “strike team” that Bloomberg reported helped polish and finish key portions of that game, including its ending. MobyGames · Bloomberg.
LinkedIn lists Hidey as lead producer on Mass Effect 5 — “The Next Mass Effect” — until last month, when she moved to Bungie.
Her résumé includes roles such as senior brand manager and product manager across projects tied to Bethesda, BioWare, and EA. She worked as senior brand manager on Starfield, contributed to Hi-Fi Rush and Ghostwire: Tokyo, and supported multiple expansions for The Elder Scrolls Online as well as the now-defunct Elder Scrolls: Legends. Her credits also include The Evil Within 2 and Dishonored: Death of the Outsider.
Hidey’s career in games began with Mass Effect 3 in 2012, followed by work on Dragon Age: Inquisition and several DLCs.
What does a global franchise director do at Bungie? Job listings for the role (some archived versions refer to it as global franchise marketing director) describe responsibility for the Destiny IP’s publishing success. The position sits on the Destiny 2 leadership team and is expected to leverage consumer insight and analytics to drive commercial and marketing outcomes, improve player satisfaction, and steward the franchise — effectively managing other managers and coordinating major initiatives. Archived job listing.
Hidey joins Bungie as Destiny 2 faces rough sentiment among parts of its player base and falling activity; Steam data captures only a fraction of the game’s audience, and console players make up a significant portion of the community. While many players still enjoy Destiny 2, dissatisfaction has been widespread among longtime fans and some high-profile creators.
The Edge of Fate expansion introduced sweeping systems changes that many players found punishing: content was trimmed, progression became a grind, and the in-game economy felt worse to some than it had in years. Bungie has patched several issues since that expansion’s release, but many fixes have simply restored features that were removed rather than delivering fresh improvements.
All eyes are now on Destiny 2: Renegades, the December expansion, which must both resolve lingering problems and reconcile a new Star Wars-themed aesthetic that some players find jarring. While it’s unfair to pin the game’s struggles on any single hire, the community’s reaction to Hidey’s appointment reflects a mix of cautious optimism and well-wishes — many hope her experience helping close out The Veilguard at BioWare could signal a similar course correction at Bungie. Player responses on Reddit largely amount to guarded hope and encouragement.
Bungie appears to be reminding itself that Destiny 2 is ultimately an MMO — something many players say the game needs more of right now, beyond temporary gimmicks and surface-level changes.
Source: gamesradar.com
