Although developer Bungie has not outlined what the upgrades might entail, the studio did confirm that Destiny 2 is headed to next-gen platforms PS5 and Xbox Series. The hope is that the new consoles will give Destiny 2 a big boost in the visual and performance department, rivaling what is available on comparable PCs.
However, even if Destiny 2 doesn’t receive a visual overhaul on PS5 and Xbox Series X, players should see two major changes with their gaming experience. In fact, some may argue that the main bonuses that the new consoles offer are even more game-changing than a higher frame rate or visual fidelity.
As Bungie has added new content to Destiny 2, the file size has bloated and game optimization has suffered. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the game’s loading times, which are represented by the player’s ship hovering in orbit.
Now, at the tail end of Year 3, Destiny 2 loading times can be inordinate as the game tries to matchmake an activity or destination and load all of the new content available. It’s not uncommon to spend several minutes in orbit, especially when trying to load into the Tower. Bungie even said that it will try to introduce ways for players to pick up bounties from Orbit to eliminate the need to travel to The Tower and wait through those load times.
In addition to the orbit loading times, just logging into Destiny 2 can take much longer than it originally did, which makes jumping into the action an ordeal. If, for example, a player just wants to log in and pick up a new mod from Banshee, the process is anything but simple.
PC players know what the benefit of SSDs and faster hard drives can offer Destiny 2, but the PS5 and Xbox Series X will finally show console players the “light.” On PC or even Google Stadia, it’s actually faster to log out to the character selection screen and jump back into a Crucible match than to wait for the match to complete. For console players that probably sounds absurd.
In addition to a faster experience jumping into activities, Destiny 2’s other big benefit from next-gen will be the download times. Specifically on PS4, updating Destiny 2 is a nightmare of confusion. Although it might take a couple minutes to download an update file (depending on Internet speed), then the console needs to copy the file.
Copying on PS4 is arguably one of most frustrating aspects of the console both because it isn’t clear what exactly it does and it usually takes longer than the actual download. Luckily, Sony has already confirmed that the copying bottleneck won’t be present on the PS5 and the SSD should make writing new updates very fast.
At a glance, these changes might not seem like much but they will go a long way towards making Destiny 2 a smoother experience. Say what fans might about the thin Season 10 content, there are still little gripes to be had with the game that are not present on PC.
Getting every version of the game on the same page can benefit those console players with faster loading times, but it could also benefit PC players as well. If Bungie is confident that players won’t spend minutes in orbit, they might be able to design more complex content without worrying how it will impact the player experience.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.