It’s been a rough few months for Bungie, after Destiny 2 launched to high acclaim, but players found the experience quickly soured once they reached the endgame grind. The release of the first DLC expansion, Curse of Osiris, was overshadowed by numerous player complaints from longtime fans that were unahppy with the direction that Bungie had decided to go with this game. Back in November, they released a State of the Game update that talked about what was and wasn’t working, and where they wanted to take things in the future.
After more player issues through the holidays, Bungie opened 2018 with another big developer update of where the team was headed. They made a decision to focus less on microtransactions, and more on making the endgame a fun experience for players to come back to and play on repeat. The most recent update made good on some of the those promises, with a promise for more big Destiny 2 updates in February.
Today Bungie took some time to release another Destiny 2 roadmap, detailing developer updates through May. It looks like Bungie is targeting releasing one major update each month (with other minor updates as necessary to fix unexpected issues), and Destiny 2 is set to get a whole lot better before the as yet unnamed Expansion II releases in May (we can assume, based on the timeline). The image above may be hard to read, so you can click to enlarge the image below and get the full list of details.
For the February update, we’ll be seeing changes to the Nightfall that will remove the timer and and scoring instead. There will also be an emblem/aura rework, though it’s not entirely clear what that means. It likely has to do with showing off completion of high-level endgame content. The February update will also bring the long awaited change of being able to see fireteam members on the map. There are a couple of other minor updates listed, and by the time the patch releases, the features list will probably be even longer.
At the end of March, Guardians will see the big sandbox changes that they’ve been asking for. This will rework a lot of the weapons and abilities to make players feel more powerful, and Bungie will detail that a little bit more tomorrow. Crucible 6v6 will be finally added back, along with Crucible ammo and gameplay tuning that will hopefully make the PVP mode more fun. This update will also add Heroic Strike modifiers to make the repetition a little more varied and Nightfall challenge cards, which are unknown at this point.
May will bring about Season 3 and even more updates, such as Exotic Masterworks, multi-emote selection, and ranked Crucible matches. Oh, and little things like Eater of Worlds Prestige mode and a vault space increase. It’s most likely that this is when Expansion II will be launching as well, but without official word from Bungie, that’s speculation at this point. Bungie has been clear to communicate that while this is all currently in the works, some of the dates are subject to change, and they will communicate that if they do.
As a Destiny fan who only wants this game to get better, I’m very excited by not only the coming updates, but the increased communication and transparency from Bungie regarding future plans for Destiny 2. Players of a long term living game just want to know what they can expect next and when to expect it. Not having to speculate about the launch timing of critical updates takes away some of the worry and allows players to simply enjoy the game.
[Source: Bungie]
