Destiny 2 'development roadmap' lays out schedule of coming changes

Update: according to game director Christopher Barrett, the second Destiny 2 expansion will launch in May, alongside season 3.

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Destiny 2 took its first big step of 2018 yesterday with the release of the 1.1.2 update that enabled Masterwork armor, reduced Illuminated Engram XP requirements, and brought in new perks for Raid armor. Today Bungie shared a more detailed breakdown of its plans for the game over the next few months, which will include the addition of a public chat function, better rewards, a 6v6 Iron Banner mode, private matches, and quite a bit more.

"Some of these delivery dates may change, but everything you see listed here is being worked on the by the team," game director Christopher Barrett wrote. "While there are larger projects in development, these are the game enhancements you’ll find in your immediate future."

Some of what's on the list was touched on earlier this month in Bungie's outline of "how it plans to fix Destiny 2 in 2018," but this is a more detailed schedule of when we can expect things to start arriving. It's obviously not going to be a lightning-fast update campaign, but it's good to see the game moving in the right direction. I'm particularly looking forward to a public chat option (I may come to regret that, I know), and the 6v6 battles should be fun too, although I hope 4v4 remains an option.

At a glance the most interesting thing here—i.e. what has the greatest chance of drawing some of the lapsed playerbase back—is sandbox update coming on 27 March. The sandbox team is essentially responsible for the way all weapons and abilities work in the game, and has come in for stern criticism (rightly, in our view) from players who think the fun has been diluted by the sequel's more conservative design choices.

Following that, it's not really until the arrival of the game's third season in May—and with it Exotic masterworks to chase, plus the promised revamp of the gear
mod system—that things get interesting again. Whether the game can muddle on for another three months in the interim is debatable, but at least we now have a clear sense of when to expect specific improvements to key systems. Bungie will "dive into the details" tomorrow and in the following weeks with updates including screenshots and developer commentary.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.