Destiny’s big 2019 plans: Stadia, Steam, new expansion, and free-to-play version

Bungie has revealed a slew of big news for Destiny 2 today during a stream event. Notably, the multiplayer shooter is getting a new expansion, Shadowkeep, on September 17. Destiny 2 will also have a new free-to-play version, New Light, which includes the base experience and all of the content Bungie released during the game’s first year (the Curse of Osiris and Warmind expansions). Destiny 2 will also be coming to Stadia, Google’s upcoming streaming console.

Destiny 2 released on September 6, 2017, for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with a PC releases following on October 24. Destiny 2 has had three expansions so far. The last one, Forsaken, released in September 2018. Activision Blizzard originally published the game, as it had with the first Destiny, but Bungie took over sole ownership of the franchise after it split from former publishing partner Activision Blizzard in January.

That’s why Destiny 2 is now switching PC clients. It is moving from Activision Blizzard’s Battle.net to Steam. “We’re committed to making this move as complete and seamless for our PC players as possible — current PC players will be able to bring all of their progress and purchases with them, including their Guardians, their vaults, and all of their progress — at no cost,” Bungie noted in a press release sent to GamesBeat. “We will have full details on how this migration will work later this summer on Bungie.net.”

A new, more convenient era for Destiny 2

Shadowkeep will be Destiny 2’s first standalone expansion. It has players returning to the moon, a location from the original Destiny. Shadowkeep is also adding finishing moves and a new way to customize armor.

Standalone means it won’t require the purchase of any other Destiny 2 content. Part of this is only logical, as the base game will now be free, but Bungie is planning to use an à la carte system for all future Destiny 2 releases. Players can buy what they want without having to worry about owning everything that else that came before. So with Shadowkeep, you don’t need to own the last expansion, Forsaken.

Destiny 2 will also add support for cross-saving for all platforms. This does not mean the game is getting crossplay, where people from different platforms can play with each other. But you can play as the same character on the cross-save devices.

Bungie is also getting rid of platform exclusives. In the past, the PlayStation 4 version of Destiny 2 had exclusives like guns and Strikes (Destiny’s take on the multiplayer dungeon experience). “Supporting the vision of a unified community, it’s important to make sure all content be available on all platforms,” Bungie notes. “This is effective when Shadowkeep launches.”

The free-to-play version, New Light, will also have a new intro scenario for new characters inspired by the opening to the original Destiny.

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