Destiny 2, Bungie’s long-running online sci-fi shooter, has a year of significant changes ahead, according to a new roadmap the studio set out in an extensive blog post on Thursday. While the game is the next big expansion, The Witch Queen, has been postponed until early 2022, says Bungie that major upgrades 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 for Destiny 2 is a major crossplay implementation that will enable computer and console gamers for the first time to join in activities. In his blog post, Bungie said that crossplay will come in season 15 later this year, and most importantly, the studio confirms that it will not provide crossplay for competitive activities, as many fans feared. “Do not worry, we do not fit console and computer players into the Crucible unless PC players specifically invite their console friends to play with them in the PC Crucible pools,” reads the blog post.
There are a bunch of other big changes planned, many of which pay attention to years of player complaints. Here is an overview of the most important:
- Bungie will no longer “undergo” weapons and armor by making older items obsolete. The studio says: “any weapon or armor that can currently be applied to maximum power will still be able to reach maximum power permanently.” This is a huge relief for players who have been frustrated over the past year about the sunset experiment, which left the fans’ favorite equipment behind.
- The Vault of Glass, Destiny‘s very first raid, comes back as part of the Destiny Content Vault in season 14 this summer. Bungie now says that he will eventually launch a ‘master’ difficult version to align the raid with the game’s most difficult player versus environment (PvE) activities.
- Bungie plans to ‘refurbish’ the ultra-competitive Trials of Osiris game mode to improve matchmaking, rebuild the incentive structure to encourage less skilled players to compete and find ways to recruit solo players too late to participate.
- Bungie outlined important changes in the operation of its Darkness-based Stasis subclass in both PvE and PvP activities to reduce its dominance over human opponents and level up the older subclasses.
- Destiny 2 will no longer force players to hone out 50 power level points each season, but instead introduce small season expansions with only a 10 power level jump. This should make it easier for players to fall back into the game at the start of new seasons and not feel pressured to rise. (This is my personal favorite announcement of the day.)
Many of these changes represent Bungie’s renewed effort to listen to his dying fans, many of whom are already playing Destiny 2 and its predecessor since 2014.
Common complaints include exhausting grind to reach the maximum power level and enjoy the most rewarding activities of the game, a lack of attention and focus on the competitive crucible game mode, and inconsistencies in the depth and richness of certain expansions towards others that can lead to long content concepts. and little incentive to keep playing. It looks like Bungie is tackling it all with its 2021 plans, all leading to the eventual release of The Witch Queen next year.
The studio has endured countless storms before, including an almost constant ebb and flow between extreme satisfaction of the player and insane indignation. With last year’s Beyond Light, Bungie indicates that he is ready to Destiny universe to a long-term scope with a more service-oriented model and a more coherent vision for the story and structure of the game.
It effectively means no Destiny 3; the series would continue in its current state and evolve over time, like a proper MMO or live service game. Last week, the company also announced a major shuffle of its executive leadership and an expansion of the studio that includes an expansion of the company Destiny universe in ‘additional media’, which opens the door to film and TV and other formats.
Bungie has proven that he is more than capable of listening to feedback and focusing his attention and resources where it matters most, making this latest roadmap Destiny 2 looks more promising than ever.