Bungie has revealed a new roadmap for Destiny 2 that prominently centers around two expansions that are currently slated to launch in 2025. Earlier this year, Destiny 2: The Final Shape was released and brought about an end to the “Light and Darkness Saga” that had started with the original Destiny. In the wake of The Final Shape launching, fans naturally had questions about what Bungie would look to do with the shooter next. Now, we have a better understanding of what’s on the horizon.
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In an extensive new blog posted to Bungie’s website today, the studio provided more clarity on the future of Destiny 2. Most notably, Bungie says it’s now planning to release two expansions per year instead of one large one. This new strategy will begin in 2025 with an expansion currently codenamed Apollo which will drop in the summer. It will then be followed by Behemoth in winter 2025, which segue into another major content drop in spring of 2026. This new initiative is being codenamed Frontiers and will also be headlined by four free updates that will launch in each calendar year.
“We’ve loved creating annual expansions and are especially proud of The Final Shape,” said Destiny 2 game director Tyson Green. “But the truth is that they dominate almost all our development effort. 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. Starting next year, instead of one big expansion, we are going to deliver two medium-sized expansions, one every six months. 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.”
One aspect of this new format that Bungie says it’s looking to dive into is nonlinear storytelling. This is something that will begin in Apollo and will allow Destiny 2 players to experience larger story beats in any manner that they choose. As a result, stories will play out a bit differently for everyone while still delivering all of the same content.
“Previously, in stories like The Final Shape, you experienced the story as A to B to C to D in a nice straight line. In Codename: Apollo, our story takes place over dozens of threads you’ll explore and discover,” explained narrative director Alison Lührs. “So, when you land on our brand new location, the story starts at A, and then you can choose if you want to explore C first, or try and get into B, or maybe investigate D. And the options you didn’t choose? Don’t worry, those other options are still open for you to go back and play through. You’ll need to! Because the more you play and discover, the more the story progresses, so experiencing a certain number of threads opens up the next part of the story.”
These changes are quite drastic for Destiny 2 but they might prove to be exactly what the game needs. The past year has been a rough one for those at Bungie as the studio has suffered through multiple rounds of layoffs, which was due in part to the underperformance of Destiny 2. With this lackluster performance in mind, Bungie seems to be trying to reshape the way it approaches the online shooter as a way of getting more players to engage with it. Whether or not it turns out to be the right move remains to be seen, but it’ll be worth keeping an eye on Destiny 2 in 2025 to see how it evolves next.
