Ahead of E3 2019, Bungie has made some major announcements regarding their hit FPS game, Destiny 2. Bungie has revealed the next major expansion for the game called Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, which succeeds the Forsaken expansion that arrived last year. Moreover, Destiny 2 is transitioning from the Battle.net platform and will soon arrive on Steam. Additionally, Bungie has announced that Destiny 2 will support cross save across supported platforms such as PC, Xbox One, PS4, and Google's Stadia game streaming service. Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, with the arrival of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, the core game - including all year-one content - will become free-to-play and will go by the name Destiny 2: New Light.
Starting with the Shadowkeep expansion, not much is known about the storyline except that it will take the heroes to the moon and will mark the return of a character named Eris Morn. “Return to the Moon. Journey deep into a mysterious enemy citadel. Help Eris slay these nightmares before they reach out beyond the Moon to cast humanity back into an age of darkness”, reads Destiny 2: Shadowkeep's description on the Bungie website.
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep arrives on September 17, and is now available for pre-purchase on supported platforms such as PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The new expansion will be available in three bundles – Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Standard Edition, Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Digital Deluxe Edition, and Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Collector's Edition. The latter is priced at $149.99 (roughly Rs. 10,400) and includes new missions, quests, destinations, and dungeons arriving with the Shadowkeep expansion, four season passes, exclusive Eris Morn themed items, and a digital code for Destiny 2 Deluxe Edition.
Talking about the availability, the game's arrival on Steam is big news and is expected to help Bungie rope in more new players. Previously, Destiny 2 was available on Battle.net platform, but in the wake of Bungie obtaining the rights for the Destiny franchise from Activision earlier this year, the game's developer is now free to move away from Activision Blizzard's Battle.net platform and move to the greener Steam pasture. Destiny 2: Shadowkeep will hit Steam on September 17. But that's not all. Bungie will allow players to move "current characters, gear, and progress from Blizzard's Battle.net to Steam."
But Bungie is not just content with Destiny 2's arrival on Steam, as the developer also wants to get more players hooked to the game. To achieve that objective, the core Destiny 2 game will become free-to-play under the name Destiny 2: New Light. The new avatar of the game will go live on September 17 for players on all supported platforms.
Destiny 2: New Light is set to offer all the content that arrived within the first year of the game's arrival such as cooperative quests, competitive modes, challenging endgame activities, and more. With the move, the core game is free-to-play, and all further expansions (and other content released later) will be available on a paid basis. Players also do not need to own previous expansions to play new ones. Notably, Destiny 2 was made free for PC users for a brief period last year after BlizzCon.
