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”.