Shadowkeep: Bungie reveals its latest expansion for Destiny 2 and details of Destiny’s future.

Hold onto your ghosts! We’re returning to the Moon

Bungie revealed its latest Destiny 2 expansion Shadowkeep along with cross saves, New Light and Destiny’s arrival on Google Stadia.

Shadowkeep sees the return of three-eyed Hive-obsessive Eris Morn as she calls on guardians to help her defeat the literal ghosts of their past called Nightmares, which have emerged from the depths of the Moon. The trailer appears to show almost all the big bad bosses of Destiny history making a terrifying comeback.

Destiny General Manager Mark Noseworthy described the expansion as an ‘expandalone’, meaning it will follow a similar format to that of previous big expansions like Forsaken, but crucially it will be a standalone expansion and will not require players to own Destiny 2’s previous expansions.

New Year, New Light

All of Destiny 2’s year one content (that’s the base game and the two expansions: Curse of Osiris and Warmind) will also be free-to-play in a new experience called Destiny 2: New Light.

New Light is mostly aimed at new players to the franchise and allows them to create a character and play the introductory missions from Destiny 1 until they reach the Tower. At that point every activity from the first year of Destiny 2 will become available, including Strikes, Raids, Crucible and Gambit. New Light players will be boosted to an appropriate level so that they can join their friends straight away without being held back by story progress or other limitations.

New Light players will still have to buy Forsaken and Shadowkeep if they want to play through the story and other content of those expansions but every destination in the game will be available for them to explore, including the Moon, the Dreaming City, the Forsaken Shore, Mars and Mercury. Thankfully, Forsaken and its annual pass will be getting a price drop too.

Cross saves will also be coming to Destiny 2 so that players can preserve their characters across PlayStation, Xbox, and now Steam and even Google Stadia.

Bungie’s split from Activision earlier this year means that Steam will function as Destiny 2’s new PC home and existing PC players will be able to transfer their progress from Battle.Net and play on Steam for free.

MMO or no?

The split has also allowed Bungie to set out some of its new aims for the franchise and finally solve Destiny’s genre identity crisis: “[Destiny is] an action MMO and that’s where we’re headed”, Game Director Luke Smith said.

With Bungie accepting the MMO tag, they’re now doubling down on the RPG elements of the game and changing how seasons and content are marketed.

In improving the RPG, Smith said that Bungie will be “adding stats back into the game”. While nothing specific was shown, the update with Shadowkeep will introduce improved armour perks and customisation, finishing moves, and restructured Crucible playlists.

Bungie also committed to not having platform exclusive gameplay content anymore. This means no more PlayStation exclusive exotics, Crucible maps or Strikes so that every player has access to the same activities and gear, regardless of their preferred platform.

Season passes will now be sold individually much like Fortnite’s Battle Pass so players don’t have to commit to a year of seasonal content like the Forsaken annual pass offered. Buying Shadowkeep for £30 ($35) will include the latest season pass too.

Shadowkeep will feature a new take on the original Moon patrol space from Destiny 1 that’s also twice as large, a new Black Garden raid, new exotic gear and more. It release on PlayStation, Xbox, Steam and Stadia on 17 September later this year.