Destiny 2, Bungie’s long-running online sci-fi shooter, has a year of substantial change ahead of it, according to a new roadmap outlined by the studio in an extensive blog post published Thursday. While the next big expansion to the game, The Witch Queen, has been delayed to early 2022, Bungie says major overhauls are planned for almost every aspect of the game – from the competitive multiplayer Crucible mode to how players progress and become more powerful in the game’s seasonal expansion model.
One of the biggest changes planned Destiny 2 is a major cross-play implementation that allows players on PC and players on consoles to come together for activities for the first time. In his blog post, Bungie said that crossplay is coming into Season 15 later this year, and most importantly, the studio confirms that it will not mandate crossplay for competitive activities, as many fans feared. “Don’t worry, we won’t be bringing console and PC players together in the Crucible unless PC players specifically invite their console friends to play with them in the PC Crucible pools,” the blog post reads.
A lot of other big changes are planned, many of which address long-term complaints from players. Here’s an overview of some of the most important:
- Bungie will no longer give weapons and armor ‘sunset’ by making older items obsolete. The studio says, “Any weapon or armor that can currently be delivered up to maximum power will permanently continue to reach maximum power.” That’s a huge relief for players who have been frustrated with the sunset experiment over the past year and left behind their favorite gear.
- The Vault of Glass, DestinyThe very first raid returns as part of the Destiny Content Vault in season 14 this summer. Bungie now says it will eventually launch a “master”, tough version to tailor the raid to the game’s most difficult player versus environment (PvE) activities.
- Bungie plans to “overhaul” the ultra-competitive Trials of Osiris game mode to improve matchmaking, rebuild the incentive structure to encourage less experienced players to compete, and devise ways to allow solo players to participate.
- Bungie has outlined significant changes in how his Darkness-based Stasis subclass functions in both PvE and PvP activities to tone down his dominance against human opponents and bring up the older subclasses.
- Destiny 2 will no longer force players to grind 50 power level points each season and will instead introduce minor season expansions with just a 10 power level jump. That should make it easier for players to get back into the game at the start of new seasons and not be pressured to level up. (This is my personal favorite announcement of the day.)
Many of these changes represent Bungie’s renewed effort to listen to his diehard fans, many of whom have played Destiny 2 and its predecessor since 2014.
Common complaints include exhausting grinds to reach maximum power level and enjoy the game’s most rewarding activities, a lack of attention and focus on the competitive Crucible game mode, and inconsistencies in the depth and richness of certain expansions compared to of others that can result in lengthy content concepts and little incentive to keep playing. Bungie appears to be addressing all of this with its plans for 2021, all leading up to the eventual release of The Witch Queen next year.
The studio has already weathered numerous storms, including a near-constant ebb and flow between extreme player satisfaction and outrageous outrage. With last year Beyond light, Bungie indicated it was ready for the Destiny universe towards a longer-term reach with a more service-oriented model and a more cohesive vision of the game’s story and structure.
In fact, this meant no Destiny 3The series would progress to its current state and evolve over time, like a real MMO or live service game. And last week, the company also announced a major shuffle of its executive leadership and a studio expansion that includes an expansion of the Destiny universe in “supplemental media”, opening the door to film and TV and other formats.
Bungie has proven to be more than capable of listening to feedback and focusing its attention and resources where they matter most, creating this most recent roadmap Destiny 2 look more promising than ever.