Bungie Lays Out Roadmap for Next Content Season, Year 4 of Destiny 2, and Beyond
By: Bryce L. Jackson
To start the stream, Bungie held an 8-minute 46-second moment of silence and call to action in the memory of George Floyd, the amount of time it took for him to die because of police mistreatment. Bungie staff all the way up to the CEO also took part in protests in Seattle, some falling victim to riot police’s extrajudicial use of tear gas to break up protesters. Bungie is a progressive-minded company not afraid to speak up for marginalized groups and their actions before the stream must be commended.
Eyes up, Guardians. The Darkness is here.
Bungie held a special live stream laying out the roadmap for the future of Destiny 2. They squashed any rumors or rumblings about a Destiny 3 any time soon by laying out their expansions through to 2022.
First off, they revealed the content for Season 11 of Destiny 2 called Season of Arrivals, a precursor to the impending expansion later this fall. A long mysterious threat finally reveals itself and threatens the entire system.
The Darkness, a looming entity dating back to Destiny 1 and a focal point of the Shadowkeep Expansion is now at our doorstep. Guardians must fend off the first wave with new public events, explore the secrets of the Cradle, a new zone within Io, and explore the secrets beneath the new Dungeon “The Prophecy” where the rules of the world you know are broken.
Destiny 2: Beyond Light is the next Expansion Pass for the game and will include a new Patrol Zone: Europa. The mysterious Exo Stranger from Destiny 1 has finally returned to reveal the secrets of this icy moon of Jupiter. A new damage type and sub-class long-teased in the lore of Destiny will finally become available for us to wield. Stasis is a damage type of the Darkness that Guardians will now wield in weapons and abilities. Destiny 2: Beyond Light will release on September 22nd, 2020.
The Future of Destiny
Bungie intends on continuing to build upon what they have in Destiny 2 well into the future, announcing Destiny 2: The Witch Queen as its 2021 expansion and Destiny 2: Lightfall (working title) for 2022. Bungie also stated that Destiny 2 content will also be cross-generational. So expansions and character profiles from the PS4 and XBOX One era will be seamlessly available on PS5 and Series X when players upgrade with no need to repurchase expansion content.
Additionally, Bungie said in order to support further expansion onto the Destiny 2 framework, some older in-game content will be sidelined but not necessarily retired from the main playlist. Destiny 2 will have what is called the Destiny Content Vault (DCV) that will house older Destiny 2 content like strikes, adventures, and raid lairs that have fallen out of popularity in the community. The DCV will also bring back Destiny 1 content, including the Cosmodrome, 3 classic strike missions, and the Vault of Glass raid.