It looks as if Bungie is embracing its Activision-free future with some big changes for Destiny 2. According to a new leak, the online shooter is headed to Steam and going free to play.
VG247 spotted a leaked story on Engadget whuch stated that Bungie is gearing up to unveil the future of Destiny 2 at a special event tonight, with the big news being that the title is going free to play.
The base game and the Year One content will reportedly be free on PC and consoles, with an free year of content planned under the name Destiny: New Light. However, the developer will still charge for Year Three expansions, however.
The leak also suggests that Destiny 2: New Light will launch alongside the release of the Shadowkeep expansion on September 17 this year. In addition, but Bungie is ending its timed exclusivity deal with PlayStation and moving the game from Battle.net to Steam over on PC. Cross saving is also set to be implemented across every platform apart from PS4.
The idea seems to be an opportunity to attract new players to the game without the need for a financial commitment.
While newcomers will be able to enjoy vast chunks of the game at no extra cost, I’d assume they’ll still hit various paywalls that require small fees in order to access future expansions or select pieces of content (such as the aforementioned Year Three expansions), similar to World of Warcraft’s approach.
Meanwhile, Kotaku reported that Destiny 2 is also set to launch with Google’s upcoming Stadia streaming service. This version will also support the cross save function, apparently.
Finally, a few details have emerged on the Shadowkeep expansion. A leaked Microsoft Store listing points to new quests, a new location to explore, a new dungeon, a new raid, and new gear. We’ll find out more for certain during the Destiny 2 event tonight.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.