Today Destiny 2 game director Joe Blackburn took to X (formerly Twitter) with a video to talk about the upcoming expansion The Final Shape and more.
Blackburn begins the video by acknowledging the feedback that the previous State of the Game post fell short of expectations, also taking personal responsibility for it.
Next week, on August 22, Bungie will broadcast its showcase to reveal The Final Shape. It was recorded a while ago, and it's a "pretty focused reveal." The expansion will focus on the Light, the enemies that have been set up, and the allies that have accompanied the players.
It's not about "wacky new systems" or concepts coming into the game, but it will be an experience that anyone who ever played Destiny should be able to enjoy.
The showcase is also built for a very wide audience, so it won't focus on details of the expansion that only the core audience is familiar with. These include a new Strange Coin refactor and Xur revamp or changes of the HUD that will make buffs and debuffs more clear in higher level combat.
The presentation will focus on the story, the locations, and a little bit about changes to the live service. The developers will provide more details after the showcase itself.
Speaking of PvP, the current approach seems not to be producing the Crucible experience that players expect, so Bungie will produce a map pack that will be free for everyone next year. This will include multiple maps each of which will be good at specific things and provide variety.
On the fifth week of Season 22, the game will get a new mode called Checkmate. It's "all about that primary fire basic weapon excellence of Bungie games and being able to show that excellence in Bungie games."
Another mode called Relic will be about "quality Destiny sandbox experience of your guns and your powers that escalates when you succeed in a sort of crazy mayhem-like experience."
More modes will be included in the core playlist. This includes some of the modes that were included only in Iron Banner and more.
The points system in Competitive will be rebalanced, and winning and losing will matter more, making it more predictable. The rotation will also include more of the modes that players enjoy.
Bungie will have a PvP strike team focused on the Crucible. As dedicated PvP developers they will decide what they want to do, and once this is approved, it'll immediately be communicated to the community via TWID posts and Reddit.
Moving on to armor, Blackburn acknowledged that Bungie hasn't been effective in communicating its priorities with armor. There will be a new ritual armor set in The Final Shape. A brand new set that was going to be paid for in Season 22 is also going to be free as a Ritual reward.
Bugie will also communicate more with the players. The branded accounts will post more and with more personality.
Blackburn himself will stream playing the game while talking to the player base. This won't be packed with reveals, but it'll be another channel of communication while also learning from the players while playing with them.
In other Destiny 2 news, recently we learned that Keith David will play Commander Zavala in The Final Shape and beyond after the passing of beloved actor Lance Reddick.
