Game developer Bungie officially announces that Trials of Osiris and Iron Banner Crucible matches will end on Destiny's PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions.
As many fans of Destiny are probably aware at this point, Bungie is currently at work on the sci-fi shooter's latest expansion known as Rise of Iron. What some Guardians may not know, however, is that the developer is planning on leaving the game's players on last generation consoles behind with the forthcoming expansion, as the DLC will not be supported on PS3 or Xbox 360.
With this being the case, Bungie seems to be priming itself to make the transition into fully focusing its development on Destiny's PlayStation 4 and Xbox One ports, as the studio just recently revealed that fans on older consoles will also be losing access to live events, Trials of Osiris, and Iron Banner Crucible matches after sometime in August. Furthermore, Destiny's PS3 and Xbox One players will eventually not have the option to get individual exotic weapons and armor from Xur, but ought to still be able to purchase exotic and legacy exotic engrams, and consumable items as well.
In addition to the aforementioned content becoming defunct for Destiny's PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions, the developers at Bungie also have plans to shut off "the majority of methods for purchasing Silver," the action-MMO's in-game currency and the studio's microtransaction revenue stream, for legacy consoles. Fans on older systems should lose access to this feature in August as well.
Although all of this is definitely unpleasant news for Destiny's fans on legacy consoles, it's worth noting that Bungie is ensuring that access is retained to Prison of Elders, raids, boss challenges, as well as daily and weekly challenges across all platforms. No doubt, though, the studio would prefer if fans decided to make the leap to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One by bringing their Guardians over to the modern consoles.
In order to do so, Destiny fans on last-gen will need to purchase a copy of The Taken King on PS4 and Xbox One, which would not only give them the chance to play Rise of Iron, but also receive new game updates and have access to all of the materials being disabled on PS3 and Xbox 360. For more details on account importing in Destiny, check out Bungie's support guide.
Naturally, due to budget constraints or a number of other reasons, not every Destiny player on PS3 and Xbox 360 will be able to make the upgrade for the game's future content, so it's unfortunate their experience with the title will be drastically different than others on current generation consoles. Nevertheless, with the majority of video game developers now exclusively creating for newer systems, many fans were undoubtedly aware of Bungie's decision to eventually phase out materials for PS3 and Xbox 360. Bearing all of this in mind, with the studio's desire for faster content development, segueing Destiny's production from last-gen to PS4 and Xbox One should help Bungie speed up considerably.
Destiny is out now and is available for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One, while its forthcoming expansion, Rise of Iron, is set to release on September 20, 2016, but only for PS4 and Xbox One.
Source: Bungie