There have been a lot of questions about Destiny 2 as it enters its third year with the release of the Shadowkeep expansion this October. Developer Bungie has said previously that Destiny 2 cannot continue to grow infinitely, which has led to questions about how long Destiny 2 will continue to get content and support before an eventual Destiny 3 is released.
In a new ViDoc about Shadowkeep and Year 3, Bungie discussed what the years ahead will look like for fans and how many years they can expect to be playing new expansions and seasons with Destiny 2 as the main, active entry of the franchise.
A 5-Year Plan
In the new ViDoc, "The Moon and Beyond," Destiny franchise director Luke Smith said that Bungie has a "five-year vision for the game." Smith did not expand upon that statement, especially whether he was referring to five more years starting with the upcoming Year 3 or five years from the original launch of the game. Either way, it sounds like players can expect to be playing Destiny 2 at least through a Year 5, which would mean that the game would continue to be supported with new content through the year 2022.
Conversely, if Bungie is counting five years from now, that would potentially put new content for Destiny 2 through the year 2024. Either way, players should not expect Destiny 2 to go anywhere anytime soon in favor of a sequel.
It is unclear if Bungie has always had this vision for Destiny 2, but it definitely comes across that Bungie is feeling like the game has a fresh start since the developer split from Activision and took up full self-publishing rights for the franchise. Smith explained how Bungie views Destiny 2 going into Year 3 and how that is setting a foundation for the future of the game:
"Forsaken broke a bunch of the bones that we had set with Destiny 2. What we've been able to do this year is reset them. Are we done? No. Not even close."
The New Model: Expansion & Seasons
Bungie explained that the future of Destiny 2 will look structurally very similar to Shadowkeep and Year 3. Each year will kick off with a new expansion with the same scope as Shadowkeep (which has been explained so far as being about the size of Destiny 1's Rise of Iron expansion) and feature multiple seasons. In the case of Year 3, there will be four seasons.
With seasons, Bungie is trying to fix one of the common criticisms of the game, which is its often disjointed and disconnected narrative. Smith previously shared a bold vision for the evolving world of Destiny 2, of which narrative played a key part. Bungie is hoping to connect the game's narrative throughout a year's seasons, showing progression and momentum toward actual change within the world.
In fact, some of the developers spoke about this in the ViDoc saying that the upcoming Season of the Undying (Season 8) is the "catalyst," Season 9 (known as Season of Dawn) is "really where things start to build, Season 10 is where things start to get pretty intense, and then, Season 11, everything is going to come together." Bungie said it's planning something big for Season 11, and that it will be "like no other time in Destiny."
It's clear that Bungie is making ambitious moves with Destiny 2 to try to make it the game that hardcore fans are looking for. The game has evolved enormously over the past two years since its launch, and fans will have to wait and see how much more it will grow over the next three, at least.
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep releases October 1, 2019 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Source: Bungie