Hot Destiny 2 rumours point to PC release, major reboot
Destiny 2 will throw the baby out with the bathwater, according to rumours coming in from multiple directions.
Destiny 2 is coming to PC and will make major overhauls to the shared-worlds shooter, according to today's rumours.
The whispers kicked off on NeoGAF where a trusted poster corroborated information received from an alleged Activision source, in the wake of an internal presentation which included details of Destiny 2.
We'd probably ignore one set of rumours, but Kotaku has come forward to say much of the information lines up with its own sources.
The posts all agree on the following: Destiny 2 is coming to PC. There are a couple of reasons why this seems likely, not the least of which is Destiny has ditched PS3 and Xbox 360, meaning a PC port wouldn't be restricted by older architecture. Cross your fingers for cross-play, although it's super unlikely given the whole controller-mouse divide and platform holder hostilities.
Two of the three posts agree that Destiny 2 will be a totally different game from Destiny and its expansions, feeling like a true sequel rather than a big expansion. Current content may not make the jump; expect all new destinations and activities rather than revisiting the same stuff.
Another thing two of the three posts agree on is that Destiny 2 will introduce more active environments. Instead of going off to the Tower or other social spaces between quests, you'll be able to interact with NPCs and kick off activities in the active game world. One posts suggests you'll be able to queue for activities while still controlling your character, like in World of Warcraft, instead of going to Orbit to sit in matchmaking. These areas will be much bigger than current Destiny environments, apparently.
Two of the posts suggest Activision is bringing in some of its jobbing studios such as High Moon and Vicarious Visions to help Bungie with Destiny 2, which seems probable if the studio is working on a new engine or development environment.
Kotaku said that Destiny 2 may abandon current characters, but it's not clear if this refers to player characters or important NPCs. However, the bigger NeoGAF post suggests there'll be a huge story overhaul and a new plot focus on the Cabal and Saturn, so it might make sense for new faces to lead the player through storyline. This post also says new races and factions are inbound, as well as new enemies in each existing Darkness faction.
Finally, the larger NeoGAF post suggests the shift in focus to Destiny 2 means we won't see further content drops for Destiny: Rise of Iron this year, but that a new engine and development tools will mean a smoother pipeline and more frequent updates in the future. This lines up with older rumours about problems with the development pipeline for the original Destiny.
It shouldn't need to be said but as all this comes from anonymous sources it must be treated as rumour for now. Destiny 2 is currently expected in 2017, having been pushed back from an anticipated holiday 2016 launch - although that date was settled on way back before Activision and Bungie had any idea what they were doing with this experimental new genre.
What do you think of all this? Personally, I really love the Destiny fiction and I feel it's been kind of undersold by the games so far. I'd like to see Bungie do more with the setting's potential, and for the cooler aspects of its world-building be appreciated outside of Grimoire-hound circles. I'd be sad to leave my progress and adventures so far behind, but I never really felt Bungie lived up to its promises that we'd carry our Destiny memories with us as loot and whatever, so okay.