Debate me: ~30 dollar, 15 hour standalone Destiny games with a Friend Pass would gross millions on millions

Today's gamers love co-op games with middling, bare gameplay as long as the concept is silly or exciting or laugh-inducing. Or horrifying!

Today's gamers react strongly to premium co-op titles where they can Friends Pass their buddies in to be player 2 on the adventure.

Destiny has incredible gameplay and an incredible world. The MMORPG aspects are often the biggest pain points: leveling, grind, seasonal resets, making good enough gear to chase. What happens if we leave those out?

Since 2022, Destiny has entered a Campaign 2.0 era where all the raid and dungeon secret sauce finally started to get slathered on the main story experience.

Destiny: Friend Pass could in theory:

Have set characters: follow a gunslinger and a revenant into the depths of the Black Garden looking for an artefact left by The Crow. Embody a classic war-hunt-titan squad discovering new devastating Aether-Light energy abilities lying dormant on the home world of The Witness. On the EDZ, scavenge as a new light and the starving eliksni, forming a desperate truce to survive crushing Red Legion reformers.

Reach into the Halo bag: pick up enemy weapons on the fly, have unique vehicles suited to environments and occasions. Imagine a destiny campaign where you use an Exotic-level weapon for one mission, and a secret cipher to find unlocking a modifier to use it on whatever mission you like.

Retrofit the RAD experience: add a dungeon-style challenge level unlocked after completing the story.

Destiny: Friends Pass would lose out on stuff like this

- Longform storytelling: how can players make a relationship with the wider world? How do we capture the drama of killing the Hive Prince, then his father, and after almost a decade his aunt the Queen? A serious question to answer

- Freedom and a humongous buffet sandbox

- Self expression and customization

- Loot as a motivator: this Destiny would fully flex the inate flavor of the blissful gameplay, but how many times would players replay? Is that something that needs more priority? After a decade of trying to find the balance, maybe this approach should be left behind

Would YOU buy Destiny: Friends Pass?

Do you think it would be EASIER to get a friend who doesn't already play to enjoy a cool destiny experience?

What would be the worst thing lost in a new model like this?

How would you design a new package or shape for the Destiny IP?