Destiny 2 Cross-Save Requires Players to Buy Content Per Platform

Game Rant

By Weston Albert

Published Jun 11, 2019

Bungie announces that even though Destiny 2 players will be able to take advantage of Cross-Save in the game this fall, they will also be required to buy content per platform.

This fall, Destiny 2 is going to introduce Cross-Save, meaning players will be able to carry their characters, gear, and progress across the game’s various platforms. One unanswered question from the announcement was whether purchasing the game or its expansions on one platform would also transfer over to the others. The answer in the current stage of development is no.

At E3 2019, some of the lead Destiny developers chatted about the future of Destiny 2 and the company since breaking away from Activision to self-publish the Destiny franchise from this point forward. During that panel, the question came up, and while the developers said the details are still being fully worked out, the current plan is that players will have to buy the game and its content per platform.

So that means, for example, if a Destiny 2 player on PS4 wants to move over to PC with their current characters and progress, they can do that with Cross-Save when the feature is added this fall, but they will have to buy the game and any of its add-ons on PC as well. It’s not surprising that each platform would need its own license for the game, and while many were probably hopeful that one license for the game would carry across platforms, it isn’t the most realistic hope when taking into account the business side of the industry as a whole.

What may help ease this news is that Bungie is creating a free-to-play entry point into the game called Destiny 2: New Light, which is free on any platform and still provides (what Bungie promises to be) a sizeable chunk of the game's content. That way, at least players can try out the game on another platform before spending any money on more content there.

Also, as Bungie detailed in its own reveal last week of this fall’s expansion, Shadowkeep, additional seasons and expansions will all be purchased a la carte from this point forward, instead of past methods of requiring players to purchase all the content from the past before also buying the new content.

Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Destiny 2: New Light and the Shadowkeep expansion release September 17, 2019 for Google Stadia, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.