With last week's launch of Destiny 2's Warmind DLC having already come and gone, it's quite possible that many Guardians have already explored all that the new expansion has to offer and are looking forward to what's in store for the future of the science fiction shooter. Bungie is likely well aware of this being a potentiality, as the developer has now released a new, detailed look at the Development Roadmap in store for the next few months, with one of the updates coming from the studio being a PvP PTR feature called "Crucible Labs."

As seen in the image of Destiny 2's Development Roadmap below, Guardians should expect to see Crucible Labs come out alongside Faction Rallies improvements and Exotic Armor Sandbox Changes on May 29. According to design lead Derek Carroll, Crucible Labs will be included in Update 1.2.1 and offer players the chance to become "a louder voice in [Bungie's] creative process" by offering fans the ability to access "experimental PvP content" so as to better take feedback into account before releasing the final product.

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While Carroll promises to share more details about the feature before launch, it appears as if Destiny 2's Crucible Labs will function similarly to various PTRs – that is, Public Test Regions – in other shooters such as Overwatch, as it's a way for developers to balance certain elements of a game. For instance, Blizzard used Overwatch's PTR recently to tweak the hero Hanzo, with many who main the character delighting in the changes due to certain buffs that were implemented. With such a feature incorporated into Destiny 2, Bungie will hopefully be able to better refine the science fiction shooter's PvP elements to create a more balanced environment.

Taking all of this into consideration, while many Destiny 2 fans will likely applaud Bungie's decision to include Crucible Labs this month, it makes one wonder why the studio hadn't added the PvP PTR sooner. After all, properly balancing the game across both PvE and PvP has proven to be a daunting challenge for developers, with certain changes almost always resulting in unforeseen technical problems. With any luck, Crucible Labs will assist Bungie in making future gameplay updates operate more smoothly for both the studio and its fans.

Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Source: Bungie