A month after Bungie acknowledged player “uncertainty surrounding the future of Destiny” following mass layoffs at the studio, the developer has announced “major changes for the future” of its live-service shooter, which will now receive multiple paid expansions a year.
More specifically, Destiny 2‘s overhauled release model, announced to coincide with the series’ tenth anniversary, will see two “medium-sized” paid expansions release annually, alongside four “major” free content updates. All this will form a “new multi-year saga” (the first since Destiny 2’s Light and Darkness saga concluded with its The Final Shape expansion earlier this year) promising new characters, factions, twists, and more.
Things kick off next summer with Destiny 2’s first new expansion, Codename: Apollo, described as a “non-linear character-driven adventure”. Elaborating on Bungie’s new “non-linear” direction in a blog post accompanying today’s news, game director Tyson Green explained the studio believes Destiny 2 has become “too rigid”, and that its annual expansions “have started to feel too formulaic and are over too quickly with little replay value”.
As such, Bungie is currently exploring non-linear campaigns “similar to the Dreaming City or Metroidvanias, and even more unusual formats like roguelikes or survival shooters”. Green says Destiny 2’s new expansion plans give the team a “new opportunity to try something different”, although he insists, “departing from one-shot campaigns doesn’t mean we are turning away from great story telling”.
Starting with Codename: Apollo, each new Destiny 2 expansion will mark the start of a new season, arriving alongside a “major” free Episode update for all players. A second Episode will arrive three months later as part of the current season before everything changes with the next expansion’s release.
Each Episode will “refresh the core game with new and reprised content”, introducing new activities (such as Strikes, Exotic missions, or new modes like Onslaught), new rewards, weekly events, features, and combat meta and balance changes. Green teases players can expect an overhauled activity UI as part of plans to improve approachability, as well as a “greatly improved” Challenge Customisation system, and new rewards including higher tiers of legendary gear. More will be shared in developer Deep Dives due in the “coming months.”
In a second blog post focusing on Destiny’s 10th anniversary celebrations, Bungie unveiled a new set of Destiny 2 armour for each class inspired by the series’ original concept art, plus new challenges, starting today, offering the Legend title and seal as rewards. Additionally, Cayde 6’s Hand Cannon is being turned into a real-life Nerf gun, for fans of high-speed sponge violence.
Today’s news – the second revised release model Bungie has announced for Destiny 2 in less than three months – follows assurances to players back in August that despite “recent changes”, the studio remained “committed to Destiny, to supporting our community with transparency, and to delivering regular updates about the game.” Those “changes” were, of course, an allusion to the sweeping layoffs that saw 220 Bungie staff lose their jobs back in July, just nine months after 100 employees were laid off at the studio.
GameFile journalist Stephen Totilo later reported July’s layoffs had long been planned, and “couldn’t be avoided” even if this year’s Final Shape expansion had seen “blockbuster performance”. Bungie management was said to have concluded last year – amid poor sales and a dwindling Destiny 2 player base – it would need to “make deep cuts to show Sony’s executives that it was taking its finances seriously”, with the studio’s autonomy – and management jobs – seemingly on the line if it failed to meet its targets. July’s layoffs were met with calls for Bungie CEO Pete Parsons to resign.
Since then, Bloomberg has reported Destiny spin-off Payback is no longer in development.