It was suggested from the very start that Destiny 2‘s Episodes – the content format for 2024 – would only be a temporary solution. Now, Bungie has doubled down on that notion with a comprehensive explanation of Codename: Frontiers, the next big chapter in Destiny 2‘s rich and storied history.
Following Bungie’s recent integration with Sony, there was a big question mark above Destiny 2‘s proverbial head. Notably, The Final Shape was an amazing expansion pack, but it also served as an even better off-ramp for veteran players. With no information on what the heck Destiny 2: Frontiers may or may not be, and with the new Episodes just delivering more of the same, it was easy to lose personal investment in the game. Thankfully, Bungie’s newly revealed plans for Frontiers sound genuinely interesting and could be used to revamp the game so that it stays relevant.
Bungie’s plans for Destiny 2 in 2025 sound very, very interesting
First things first, let me deal with the elephant in the room: Destiny 3 isn’t even on the docket yet. The topic of a potential sequel or even just a broad follow-up to Destiny 2 wasn’t even broached in Bungie’s new Frontiers blog. Instead, it delved deep into the gist of what this new approach to content is. The bottom line? Episodes are going to stay in 2024 for good.
The roadmap featured above “lays out the plan for Year 11 and beyond,” Bungie says. Generally speaking, we’ll now be getting:
- Two paid expansion packs per year
- Four “major” free content updates per year
The reasoning behind this change is perfectly sensible, for what that’s worth: “The truth is that [DLCs such as The Final Shape] dominate almost all our development effort,” Bungie says. “We need to free ourselves up to explore and innovate with how we deliver Destiny 2 content so we can invest in areas of the game that will feel more impactful to players.”
Instead of attempting to pull off a single super-sized DLC every year, Bungie will now focus on delivering smaller, “medium-sized” expansion packs every six months or so. “Each of these will depart from the one-shot campaign structure we’ve been using essentially unchanged since Shadowkeep, and each will be an opportunity to explore exciting new formats instead,” says the blog. Promising, I’d say. Each DLC will also come with a seasonal reset to keep progression more manageable in the long run (no sunsetting, thankfully).
At the same time, the free content updates are supposed to deliver on other fronts:
- Strikes, Exotic missions, and new game modes (e.g. Onslaught)
- Weapons, armor, Exotics, Artifact mods
- Weekly events
- Gameplay features
- Balancing updates
Now, if I wanted to be particularly cynical about Frontiers, I could say that I, too, remember the state of Destiny 2 in its first year. I do remember what it was like when we were getting two DLCs per year, and just how poorly Curse of Osiris was received upon its release. In a way, Frontiers is simply attempting to do the same thing but in a different way, but will it pan out? I certainly hope so.
Published: Sep 10, 2024 08:07 am