Silent_Buddha
Legend
They have their own server/client code that is used for games to make sure everything is synced. One of the reasons is to deter piracy and for the most part it works. Diablo 3, despite being extremely popular at times has never had a full crack or anything remotely approaching a full crack or even emulation. EA and others have tried this as well but without much success. This is likely due to how much is stored on their servers and provided to the client only when needed.
Denuvo has been relatively successful at protecting games by making it take longer until a cracked version appears. In general this is viewed as good enough as the majority of sales come during the launch window. However, it's still problematic as some games can have extremely long and profitable tails. Again Diablo 3 being a prime example.
The other major reason is to ensure there is as little cheating going on as possible. That's also readily apparent when you compare to other games or to the older Diablo 2. Cheating is virtually non-existent on the PC compared to console or other PC games.
But it doesn't appear that Destiny is going to take advantage of Blizzard's expertise in this area so that's a moot point. I'm not entirely surprised, however, as Blizzard is a very insular company and I imagine that they probably wouldn't feel comfortable sharing some things outside of the company. Which would mean them potentially taking control of certain aspects of Destiny in order to facilitate something like that. Of Bungie would most likely not be comfortable releasing control of parts of their product to another company.
As all of Blizzards games focus heavily on multiplayer, the games are constantly updated to address any new hacks, cheats, or expoits in the games code. As well since most of their games feature a competitive component, the games and their mechanics are periodically rebalanced to respond to whatever the latest meta is. As well, the games will periodically get updates to introduce new content. New content can be as small as a weekly cosmetic or something as large as a new class, new cards, new maps, etc.
While some people evidently don't like it, it is key to maintaining player interest and engagement with their games over a long period of time. A stagnant game will lose interest relatively quickly. A game that is constantly evolving with new additions and changes will keep players engaged far longer. Similarly if cheats, hacks, and exploits (bugs in the code) aren't quickly addressed things will quickly devolve and players lose interest.
Regards,
SB
