Destiny 2 aims to improve its seasonal model and address an annoying problem – the pressure to always play and the fear of missing out if you don’t. This is how the seasons are set to change in year 4.
Many criticize this: New content for Destiny 2 is largely introduced in year 3 through seasons, with the current Season 10 running now.
What many find particularly annoying in the third year: Numerous seasonal content, whether weapons or armor, can be only obtained during their respective season. Once the season ends, they disappear – along with seasonal activities and large parts of the now seasonally told story. Currently, there is no way to revisit this later.
This essentially creates the pressure to constantly stay engaged every season and clear its content – regardless of whether one finds it appealing or not. Many fear that if they don’t, they will completely miss out on essential content like items or storylines and will no longer be able to obtain or experience them. And that does not sit well with many.
Thus, the game would mutate from fun, from a hobby to stress and almost to work, according to numerous guardians – including our author Sven Galitzki.
If someone takes a break, whether forced or because they are not particularly interested in the content, they will be punished by the game. But that is set to change this fall.
This is how the seasons of Destiny 2 will change in year 4
As the developers announced in the current “This Week at Bungie” blog, they have clearly heard this feedback and criticism and want to make improvements accordingly. The following is planned for the fourth year of Destiny 2 (which begins in fall 2020):
Better storytelling: Each season tells a story that then carries over into the next season and thus advances a larger narrative.
For year 4, they want to further connect the seasonally told story between the individual seasons. But the most important thing: players should be able to revisit the seasonal story of a year at any time – regardless of when they join.
As an example: If someone starts in March 2021 or returns, they can go back and experience the narrative content of Season 12 and 13.
Essentially, they want to do it like in the Forsaken Annual Pass, where the content built upon each other continuously throughout the year and nothing disappeared.
Activities should remain throughout the year: Currently, seasonal activities disappear at the end of the corresponding season – regardless of whether they were well received or heavily criticized. From Season 12 onwards, this is set to change. Then the core experience should remain and be playable beyond the end of the season.
Guardians who join in one of the later seasons should receive the opportunity to dive directly into the older activities of past seasons – but without having to meet the original prerequisites from the old season to do so. However, the core experience should remain intact.
Bungie emphasizes, however, that there will still be moments when old content will be removed to make way for new content and story to unfold (likely at the end of a year with a big expansion). Because Destiny 2 cannot grow indefinitely.
The seasonal rewards will remain: Since seasonal activities are set to remain available throughout the year, players will need a reason to jump into the “old” activities from previous seasons of a year. Therefore, seasonal rewards will also remain throughout the year after the season ends.
This aims to relieve players of the pressure to obtain everything within a season. The rewards should come from the original activity, but some selected items should also be obtainable through other core activities of Destiny 2 like Strikes, Crucible, or PvP.
So, for example, if you are no longer interested in the Sundial, you could earn some of the specific weapons in a strike.
By the way: To already take this into account in the current year 3, an Engram will drop in the upcoming Season 11 that will contain some selected weapons from Seasons 8, 9, and 10.
Fall expansion is basically confirmed: Bungie summarizes their plans as follows:
The seasons will be changed so that they remain available and playable throughout the entire (respective) year. The Destiny experience should grow year by year and offer a constantly evolving world and numerous reasons to play. Each year there will then be a major step forward in the form of a new expansion.
It looks like Destiny 2 will continue for the time being – with an improved seasonal model and a major annual expansion. Thus, one can expect with great certainty that the 4th year of Destiny 2 will be ushered in this coming fall with a major expansion.
However, we should soon learn more about what else to expect in year 4 according to Bungie. Hopefully regarding the new expansion as well. Whether anything from this leak turns out to be true Leak for the new expansion has surfaced – Is this how we move into year 4?
