While Bungie has already shaken up its formula for seasons once this year with following the launch of The Final Shape, its newly-revealed Destiny 2 roadmap shows it’s preparing to rework things once again. For the start of an all-new, multi-year saga, Destiny 2 will switching to two expansions and four seasons per year – and the seasons are going to be free for everyone.
With the recent Bungie layoffs, existing players feeling a bit tired of a repetitive content formula, Steam player counts hitting an all-time low, and an experience that is still pretty baffling to newcomers, change has been on the cards for Destiny 2 for quite some time. While there were hopes for a brand-new Destiny 3, Bungie is instead committing to a new multi-year saga away from the Light and Darkness storyline within its existing FPS game. However, it is going to be overhauling a lot to ensure things don’t continue to feel stale, confusing, and too resource-draining.
“We closed a door with The Final Shape, but we are opening a new one, a weird one, an exciting one, that takes Destiny to places it has never been before,” Bungie says in one of several blog posts detailing the changes arriving in 2025. “We’re building this future now and are excited to share with you a first glimpse of it today.”
Currently, expansions like The Final Shape and individual seasons (now called Episodes) would both cost money to access. However, next year’s reshuffle will result in two paid expansions per year (one every six months) and four totally free seasons each year (one every three months.)
Expansions will continue to drive forwards the narrative of Destiny 2 and include new story beats, locations, missions, weapons, gear, raids, and dungeons. The first expansion, codenamed Apollo, will arrive in the summer of 2025, while the second expansion, codenamed Behemoth, will arrive in the winter of 2025.
These will also deviate from the linear campaigns that we’ve seen in past Destiny expansions and will attempt to tell stories in new ways. For example, Apollo is described as a “non-linear character-driven adventure.”
“The order in which you explore will be something you choose, but we have built Codename: Apollo in a way the story always makes sense and flows from beginning to middle to end,” Bungie says. “There’s no time gating, no waiting for the next drop. Codename: Apollo’s story unfolds based on player progression.”
Seasons will encompass new gear, artifact mods, gameplay modifiers, balancing and meta updates, events, and activities. Some of these activities will also be reprised ones from older seasons. Within each season, there will also be a reward pass similar to what the game has now, which is stuffed with gear, ornaments, cosmetic items, and valuable resources and currencies. These will also be free, but Bungie doesn’t mention if there will be free and premium tracks.
As mentioned, this 2025 roadmap will mark the start of a new narrative saga for Destiny 2. Understandably, Bungie hasn’t revealed any major details about what that may entail just yet. It has, however, given a small tease at what to expect.
“Apollo ends with the narrative gasoline that will propel us into the next few years with a clear theme, goal, and a destination that won’t come at you as a straight line but will be well worth the trip. It’ll reward you, it’ll surprise you, and it’ll take us places Destiny has never seen before.”
I’m really hopeful that all of this reshuffling and change in approach makes Destiny 2 feel like a genuinely fresh experience. Change was promised this year with the switch to three Episodes after The Final Shape, but in truth it’s just been a repackaging of the same storytelling methods and gameplay systems the game has had for a few years now. Hopefully, starting with Apollo, Destiny 2 kicks off a new saga that actually feels new.
For more amazing games like Destiny 2, here are the best space games that we love getting lost in. Alternatively, these are the best co-op games you can play right now if your Fireteam is looking for something fresh.
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