One of the biggest pieces of news to drop so early in 2019 was that Bungie and Activision are parting ways. The split comes after an eight year partnership (which was originally supposed to go for ten years), but Bungie says that the dissolution of the publishing deal won't change or slow down the content the company has planned for the release of Destiny 2.
This news was confirmed via a post that was published on the Bungie official website, where the company confirmed its commitment to producing content for Destiny 2.
Franchise director Luke Smith penned an open letter to the community to talk about where the property stands and what Bungie has planned for it in the near future, even without a publisher like Activision overseeing the content scheduling and monetization. This includes a brand new season of content that has been made in collaboration with Vicarious Visions, the developers behind Skylanders and the most recent remake of Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy. Vicarious Visions have been working on Destiny 2 content for as far back as the Warmind update, and the team will be helping Bungie one last time for what's being billed as Vicarious Visions' "swan song" of content for the upcoming season.
Smith also notes that there will be new content released in the interim before the new season gets underway. This new content will be available for those who purchased the Annual Pass. Smith also states that the new content for Annual Pass holders will be easier to get into compared to what the team developed for the Black Armory, where some gamers had a tough time getting into the early parts of the game due to the skill requirements being too high.
So, expect the new content coming out to be more palatable for the newbies, much like how new content for World of Warcraft is designed for the lowest tier players at the upper end of the level requirements for all the new expansion packs.
The team will also be pumping out new features to help improve what's being called "catch-up mechanics" so that players who join the adventure late will be able to play with their higher level friends by catching up without having to grind quite as much. These new scaling improvements are expected to be implemented in the upcoming seasons. And yes, that's "seasons" with an 's'. This scaling feature basically sounds like the complete opposite XP scaling limiter that was put into place in late 2017.
Beyond the upcoming Annual Pass and seasonal content, Smith reiterates that Destiny 2 is a long-term investment for Bungie and that the team is "envisioning future experiences" that change the way you play, add more enemies, and further the adventure that the team started back in 2014 with the original release of the game.
Actually, a lot of fans of Bungie from the Halo years are actually excited about this turn of events. Many believe that being out from under Activision means Bungie can focus on making its own content in a way that better aligns with the developer's original vision. Whether or not that comes to fruition is still completely up in the air, but for now Bungie has made it known that there is a commitment to Destiny 2 and a future consisting of a lot of new content.
