[UPDATE: According to Kotaku's Jason Schreier, the Destiny 2 artwork is indeed real, and fans should expect an official announcement from Bungie today.]

[UPDATE 2: Kotaku's Jason Schreier walks back his statement above to say that Destiny 2 might not actually be announced today as he initially said, but says an announcement is coming "soon." The original story continues below.]

Today, potentially legitimate posters and promotional artwork have surfaced online for Bungie's Destiny 2, revealing the game's possible launch for later this fall on September 8. As seen in the image found further below in the article, the release date is listed at the top of the advertisement and a partially seen sentence in Italian hints at a beta period across the bottom of the poster–the visible "beta in anticipio" is Italian for "beta available in advance"–with fans possibly being able to take part in the trial by way of a pre-order bonus. However, the latter portion relating to pre-orders is just speculation at this point in time.

According to the NeoGAF user HigXx, the promo art for the sequel leaked from GameStop Italy, and if fans look closely enough, they can not only see the phrase "lega dei guardiani" in the lower left box, which means "alliance of the Guardians," but also they can see the poster header has the same blue PlayStation promotional accent marks found on game artwork and advertisements where the publisher has a marketing contract with Sony. For those unaware, this was the case for the original version of the action-RPG and its myriad expansions, so it's quite possible that the same business deal will be in effect for Destiny 2.

Of course, since Destiny 2's publisher Activision or its developer Bungie have yet to openly declare an official release date or beta period for the forthcoming sequel, it's important to take all of this information with a grain of salt. However, the posters do appear to be legitimate, as it would be quite an elaborate hoax on someone's part to not only do mock up artwork for the game on their own, but also have it printed up in poster format just to take a picture of them to post on the Internet. Nevertheless, let's not doubt the gumption of some Internet tricksters.

While the veracity of Destiny 2 posters remains to be seen, the one detail that is consistent on the artwork is the fact that the sequel is set to come out this year. After all, Activision said a while back that the game's release date is on track for 2017, as the publisher is still working hard to hammer out a better way for Bungie to deliver additional content to the franchise's fans.

Interestingly enough, this isn't the first instance of Destiny 2 artwork bypassing official channels to make its way online, as the video game artist Aziz Dosmetov posted images on the Web of rejected concept boards for a potential trailer for the sequel. Undoubtedly, considering the fact that Destiny 2 is one of the most highly anticipated releases for 2017, it's likely that even more details and information could be shared online by unofficial means to fuel further speculation should Bungie not head the leaks off at the pass.

Destiny 2 is currently in production, with a targeted 2017 release.

Source: League Network, NeoGAF