In Destiny 2, the second year should never be boring. Bungie promises there will be no content droughts. But we’ve heard that before.
ViDoc for Year 2: Destiny 2 kicks off its second year with the Forsaken release on September 4. Bungie recently published a roadmap outlining the key milestones for the upcoming Destiny year. They also released a video, a “ViDoc”, where the developers discuss Year 2 and the highlights of the roadmap:
What are the developers saying about the future of Destiny 2?
In Year 2, there will be 4 Seasons, each lasting three months. Each Season will bring free content, events for all Destiny 2 players, and content included in the paid annual pass.
The key statements from the ViDoc about the Year 2 roadmap:
- “Hobby” will return in Destiny 2 – meaning that players will have more and better reasons to log into Destiny 2 regularly
- Each week, each month, throughout the whole year, there will be something new to hunt, to do, to experience. That is the plan for Year 2
- Everything learned from Destiny 1 with The Taken King, from Destiny 2, and from community feedback is now integrated into Forsaken
- In Season 4, the first Season of Year 2, there will be an extreme amount to do. The campaign and Gambit will be the focus in the first week, the Raid in the second week, and there will be plenty to discover in the open world. There will also be surprises, secrets, and the evolution of the Dreaming City.
- In the upcoming Seasons, new events and rituals will start with a fresh touch. There will be rewards that all Guardians can access, even if they have little time. There will also be exclusive rewards that require a lot of time to invest – and skill, according to Bungie
- “The most important thing we want to change with Year 2 is that there will never be a content drought,” Bungie said. There will always be something to do. Greater content deliveries will only be available with the annual pass
- The annual pass grants access to the Black Armory, which is supposed to contain the best weapons from the Golden Age
- Moreover, there are plenty of secrets to discover in the upcoming Seasons. For example, the Drifter, the Gambit lead, arrives with a huge rock that the community already connects with the Darkness:
- Destiny 2: Forsaken aims to combine the best of Destiny 2 with the best of Destiny 1 – and thus provide the best Destiny experience so far, according to Bungie
We present the complete roadmap for Year 2 of Destiny 2 here compactly.
No more content droughts? We’ve heard that before
Steady content flow: Bungie promises that there will be no more content droughts. However, many Guardians have doubts about such statements. They have heard this promise not for the first time.
Already at the end of 2016, Activision’s Eric Hirshberg stated that there would be a steady stream of content in Destiny 2 to keep Guardians continually engaged. While content deliveries in Destiny 1 appeared at too long intervals, a new and clever approach has now been found to continuously deliver content, according to Hirshberg.
Nevertheless, Guardians complained about the lack of long-term motivation: Compared to the DLC policy of Destiny 1, nothing has changed in Destiny 2. There were indeed more events, such as the Faction Rally, but these could not ensure long-term motivation. Destiny 2 had too many other problems, such as missing random rolls or the casualization, preventing Guardians from spending their time in Destiny 2 consistently.
One should be cautious
Bungie was already unable to keep this promise – at least not to the extent that Guardians hoped.
Year 2 has better signs: However, Bungie is making some changes with Forsaken that will actually promote more long-term motivation. Random rolls are coming back, the weapon system has been overhauled, PvP has been made faster. This is supposed to ensure that Guardians want to spend more time in Destiny 2 and log in regularly.
Is a year without content shortages possible? Still – a season lasts three months in Year 2, which is a long time. Many Guardians will have completed the new content in the first weeks, making it very difficult for Bungie to keep all players consistently engaged.
It is hard to imagine that there will be something to do constantly for an entire year.
