Destiny 2 fans have been waiting with bated breath to learn more about the future of the game. The Final Shape expansion was the conclusion of the long-running Light and Darkness saga, and it was well-received by veterans who had faithfully followed all of the franchise’s lore. This was followed by a large-scale reorganization of Bungie, with 225 employees being laid off, and over 200 employees being reassigned to different studios within Sony.
Monday, for the 10-year anniversary of the Destiny franchise, Bungie has released a roadmap titled Codename: Frontiers that showcases the future of Destiny 2. There will be two medium-sized expansions every year. In 2025, Bungie will release the Codename: Apollo expansion during Summer 2025, and then the Codename: Behemoth expansion in Winter. There will be an additional four major updates of free content each year, running alongside the expansions.
Expansions will offer new stories, locations, missions, and raids and dungeons for players. Seasonal updates will be more focused on gameplay, offering new events and putting fresh twists on in-game activities. “Expansions have started to feel too formulaic and are over too quickly with little replay value,” writes Tyson Green, game director for Destiny 2. Green is a long-time developer on Destiny who assumed the role after Joe Blackburn left the studio prior to The Final Shape’s launch.
“Seasons and Episodes keep getting bigger but can still feel like you are just going through the motions. […] We are actively prototyping non-linear campaigns, exploration experiences similar to the Dreaming City or Metroidvanias, and even more unusual formats like roguelikes or survival shooters. Each expansion will present a new opportunity to try something different.”
Bungie also intends to make changes to the core game as it currently is, in attempt to prevent offering far too much to do with little guidance. Bungie will be overhauling the game’s activity UI, the Director, to help players find the activities that they enjoy or offer the rewards they’re hunting for. There will also be changes to the Challenge Customization system, with rewards that rank up along with the challenge.
The end of the Light and Darkness Saga doesn’t mean an end to multi-year campaigns. Alison Lührs, narrative director on Destiny 2, shares some of the upcoming story content. “We’re proud of The Final Shape and the ending we created for the Light and Darkness Saga. And we knew that the episodes that follow would act as an epilogue, tying up Light and Dark’s hanging threads… but also setting us up for what’s next,” she writes.
Codename: Apollo will kick off the next major saga at the heart of Destiny 2; while Lührs is intentionally light on details to avoid spoilers, she writes that Codename: Apollo is “a nonlinear character-driven adventure” that “will introduce plenty of new characters, factions, twists, and more.” The name Frontiers suggests new territories, and fans have been speculating that in the conclusion to The Final Shape, Guardians may finally be leaving the Sol System for new galaxies.
Much of the upcoming content for Destiny 2 will be experimental. As Lührs writes, “Destiny is at its best when it’s mysterious, weird, and not afraid to try new things.” It looks like Bungie is shedding some of the elements of its online shooter that were tedious for fans, and experimenting with new formats and styles. It remains to be seen how these trials turn out, but a commitment to more narrative content is a relief in light of the conclusion of The Final Shape and the successive layoffs.
