The upcoming Season 15 could put the Guardians’ nerves to a real test in Destiny 2 . If Bungie doesn’t come up with an alternative solution, the new season could last up to 8 months.
Here’s what we can expect in Destiny 2 until the next expansion: Currently, Season 14 of Destiny 2 is in full swing. It runs until August 24, after which Season 15 will likely be the 4th and final season in Year 4 of Destiny 2 before Year 5 begins with the next major expansion “Witch Queen.” This is at least the current, official status and sounds like a well-thought-out plan.
However, this is making some Guardians uneasy, as some players are already looking ahead to the next season with concern. Why?
Tedious waiting, bonus season or something completely different?
What’s going on with the content drought? Bungie announced back in early 2021 that they would have to delay the next major expansion of Destiny 2 due to the impacts of the Corona pandemic – to “early in 2022.” Witch Queen was originally supposed to launch in the fall of 2021.
Even then, many fans and players were speculating about how Bungie would handle the seasons. Destiny 2 relies on a seasonal model that introduces new content into the game regularly four times a year and has increasingly been driving the story of the game forward. Many assumed that Destiny 2 would simply extend each of the following seasons in Year 4, but this hasn’t happened even in the ongoing 3 of 4 seasons so far.
The current Season 14 is set to end on August 24. That means: In principle, there will be only the upcoming Season 15 left, which can be stretched until the Witch Queen expansion to bridge the gap created by the delay. As of now, there are still supposed to be 4 seasons after the last expansion Beyond Light. And exactly here, some fear a bigger content drought.
How long could Season 15 be? “Early in 2022” is a very elastic term. It could mean anything from January 1 to April 2022. Bungie has unfortunately not yet been more specific about the release of Witch Queen.
However, even if it turns out to be January (which is not really likely, or else they would have expressed themselves more precisely) – Season 15 would thus be at least 5 months long, 2 months longer than a regular season. And in the worst-case scenario, we may have to wait until April 2022 if we consider what the video game industry nowadays refers to as “early” in a year. That would then stretch Season 15 to a total of 8 months.
In a nutshell: Unless Bungie comes up with an alternative solution in the short term, Season 15 will likely be 5 – 8 months long.
The problem with this: A season usually lasts 3 months. In 2020, Season 11 had to be extended and lasted for 5 months.
In practice, the seasonal model looks like this: many players have nothing left to do by the last month of a regular season, some even earlier, and are craving fresh content. Also, the roadmap is usually already exhausted and offers no real highlights anymore. The 5-month long Season 11 was already quite a torment for many players, even though Bungie had brought some content from the next season forward.
If you then add up to 3 more months for this annoying period for many, the problem becomes quite obvious – especially since Bungie certainly didn’t delay Witch Queen because they have so much time and resources left for new content that they could offer during the transition period.
Are there solutions? Not officially yet, the studio is still silent. Unfortunately, there were no news on the matter at the gaming fair E3 2021 either.
However, there are basically two possible solutions:
- Bungie simply extends Season 15 – by whatever amount – and ideally brings in a few new contents that can be put together at short notice. Maybe something will return from the Content Vault.
- There is a new season with fresh content or some sort of bonus season with selected old content or rewards that Guardians can earn if they missed them in the past. The Destiny Content Vault offers some possibilities there.
A completely new, additional 5th season for Year 4 is, however, as mentioned, not very likely. On the one hand, time and resources at Bungie seem to be scarce; otherwise, they wouldn’t have delayed Witch Queen. On the other hand, seasons tell their own story, leading up to the major expansion, bringing new Exotics and seasonal items like armor, weapons, or an artifact. All of this is likely not possible to be created “on the fly” at Bungie.
This, along with the studio’s current silence, rather suggests that Season 15 will be extended. And that could indeed become a torment for many and put some players’ nerves to a real test. It will definitely be interesting to see what Bungie will announce – hopefully as soon as possible.
What do you think, how could Bungie solve this problem? Just extend the season? Insert a kind of bonus season? Something completely different? What solution would you personally prefer or suggest? Let us and other readers of MeinMMO know in the comments.
