Bungie’s Destiny 2 has made some pretty significant moves in the past week. It’s going free to play in September as Destiny 2: New Light, will release on Google Stadia in November, and cross-save will be supported on all platforms (yes, even PS4). One of the more positive moves that’s being made with the upcoming Shadowkeep expansion is that players no longer need to own previous content to play it.
Project lead Scott Taylor spoke to VG247 and discussed the benefits of being independent. “We’ve become our own publisher, so what started to happen is that we’re really starting to have a conversation with our fans and with our team about what do we want to do to achieve our vision, which is kind of one global community, breaking down barriers, and so what kind of game is the thing that’s going to help us achieve that.”
It also seems that the developer was “really frustrated” that fans had to purchase previous content just to play expansions like Forsaken. “The kinds of things that are changing now is that we are looking at ways that we can… for instance, on Forsaken we were really frustrated that you had to play all the other content to even buy it.
“So one of the things that we’re doing with Shadowkeep is we’re making it so that anyone who downloads New Light, which doesn’t cost anything on any of the platforms, and if they get excited about something in New Light, or a season, they can just kind of opt into that content. So it’s like the way the industry and the way our players are evolving is making us look at the kinds of games we make, and then that’s the thing that’s pivoting us into those new directions.”
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep is out on September 17th. Along with revisiting the Moon from Destiny 1, it will see many classic threats from the first game like Aksis, Crota and so on resurrected. Eris Morn will be making her return as well with teases of the Darkness being closer than ever. Stay tuned for more details (that hopefully won’t lead to more teasing over the next year).