Destiny 2 release: this is when Destiny 2 goes live on PS4 and Xbox One in your region
Destiny 2 releases on September 6 on consoles, and it's getting a proper, staggered midnight launch. That's only hours away for some of you.
The idea is that, wherever you are in the world, as soon as the clock ticks us over to Wednesday, the doors - or rather, the servers - will open for you. If you've pre-loaded or have a physical copy of the game on hand, you can start getting your Light back right away. (You can always study our Destiny 2 guide while you wait, since it's fill of tips to help you do just that.)
This does mean Australians, New Zealanders and Japanese gamers will be among those who get to play Destiny 2 several hours in advance of other regions, and that the UK and Europe will be logged in well ahead of the US.
This sort of launch plan tends to proceed more smoothly than a global switch flick, as demand slowly ramps up instead of smashing into the servers all at once. By the time the enormous gaming population of the US logs into Destiny 2, Bungie's engineers will have had hours to sort out technical difficulties and hopefully ensure everyone can enjoy release day.
Nevertheless, American gamers sometimes get a bit upset about having to wait, and the good news is that on PS4 they won't have to wait for national timezones to start playing Destiny 2, at least.
Will Destiny 2 go live on PS4 early?
Destiny 2 will go live on the US PSN at 9pm PT, otherwise known as midnight ET - so as soon as September 6 arrives in New York, Destiny 2 arrives in Los Angeles and everywhere between them - and never mind the handful of timezones that stand in their way.
Here's a little trailer from PlayStation North America celebrating this fact:
While Xbox has not confirmed it's doing the same thing, Bungie did say Destiny 2 would have a staggered midnight release on "all consoles", so we expect Microsoft to follow suit. We'd also expect Canadian Guardians to benefit, since they're on the same servers. Everywhere else? Just rock up any time after midnight and you should be right.
If you're buying digitally, Destiny 2 preload is available now on Xbox One, and kicks off on PSN when August 31 arrives in the US in a few hours. The Destiny 2 download size is around 30GB for both consoles, so make sure you have enough drive space. It will probably be larger on PC thanks to all those lovely 4K textures.
If you need to kill a little time before Destiny 2 goes live in your region, why not read up on the three main classes and their advantages, or how the three different weapon types have changed.
See you in Destiny 2 this week! Unless you're on PC, in which case see you at the end of October when the game releases on that format.