Destiny 2 will become free to play and join Steam

[IAmAndre]

Source: Reddit, PC Gamer

 

It's a great time to be a PC gamer. After splitting with Activision earlier this year, Bungie will now offer for free the content of the 1st year of Destiny 2 and on Steam, while keeping the DLC's at their regular price.

 

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Shadowkeep is out this fall and will send players back to the Moon to explore an horror-flavored alien citadel. Apparently the new zone will be twice as big as the Destiny 1 version.

The expansion also marks Destiny's move off Battlenet and onto Steam (sayonara, Activision!) and will introduce a free-to-play model that sees Bungie charging for standalone expansions, but giving all the year one content away gratis. The move will also introduce cross-saves for Xbox, Stadia, and yes, PS4 players as well. 

The base game will be rebranded as Destiny 2: New Light. The free version includes all of the year one missions, activities, and rewards. That will include Strikes (three-player co-op dungeons), player vs. player Crucible modes, and even the original Leviathan raids.

Shadowkeep is a standalone expansion. You won't need previous expansions to access Shadowkeep, which reinforces Bungie's plan to sell future updates as standalone releases that players can pick and choose from. The expansion will reconnect players with Eris Morn, which suggests the Hive will be heavily involved. They love the Moon.

 

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Cross-save is coming to Google Stadia, Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Bungie noted that cross-save was always planned for Destiny 2, but "reasons" (presumably Activision's exclusivity deal with Sony) prevented implementation. Now you'll be able to hop between platforms with one account to play with different friend groups.

I'd really appreciate if more developers made game saves accessible from all platforms rather than asking you to pay for the license every time just to start over your game.

With E3 around the corner (and potentially more info about AoE 4) and more PC ports coming this fall like Halo: The Masterchief Collection and Detroit: Become Human, that's a lot of good news for me.

[Bouzoo]

First things first, before everyone jumps on mtx, Destiny already has them and you can basically forget that they exist. It's not going mobile route.

 

What it means that the base game is getting rebranded to Destiny 2: New Light and that is going F2P, that's it. If you ask me, good way to get new players. I stucked with the game when they gave D2 for free, then I bought everything else, I would never would have tried it otherwise. 

It's also getting cross saves which include PC, XBox, PS4 and Stadia, so that is big. 

They are removing exclusive PS4 content as well.

Least, and most important, goodbye Battle.net, hello Steam. Not sure if they are doing it out of their free will of because they must (probably the latter), but Destiny 2 is going Steam and you will be able to buy new expansion Shadowkeep only on Steam. And it all starts on September 17th. 

 

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• The Destiny 2 "Shadowkeep" expansion launches on September 17.
• Veteran players will be able to purchase standalone content like expansions within the free-to-play model.
• A new cross-save feature is coming to Xbox One and PC, but not PlayStation 4 it seems.
• Destiny 2 will launch on Google Stadia in November, but it's unclear if that version supports cross-save.
• The game is coming to Steam.
• Bungie is eliminating PlayStation 4-exclusive content.

 

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Destiny 2 is coming to Steam. You’ll be able to migrate your entire account, free of charge, with all of your characters, all their loot, all the expansions and DLC you own – all of it. The news was confirmed moments ago in a stream by developer Bungie, as were most of the leaked and datamined details on Destiny 2: Shadowkeep.

In fact, Steam will be the only place you can purchase Shadowkeep, so if you want to stay current on Destiny content you’ll have to move your account over. You’ll have to buy into the new expansion, but you’ll no longer have to own previous content in order to play the current stuff, and the Shadowkeep annual pass will be available piecemeal.

 

You can watch for the future:

 

Also the Epic Joke as a bonus:

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As project director Mark Noseworthy acknowledged in Bungie’s stream, this means it needs “a new home” on PC. Game director Luke Smith observed: “some would say we need an… epic partner.”

 

All in all, Destiny is shaping every since Forsaken to be an outstanding game, great performance, good story, great gameplay, beautiful environments and not so great PVP matchmaking.

The Activision split will probably bring even better improvements since it was Activison who was holding them out the most (according to all available info). 

 

Sources:

https://www.pcgamesn.com/destiny-2/steam

https://www.windowscentral.com/report-destiny-2-heading-steam-going-free-play-soon

https://www.pcgamer.com/destiny-2-is-going-free-to-play-on-steam-shadowkeep-expansion-detailed/

[Drak3]

@IAmAndrebeat you by a minute. 

[Bouzoo]

Just now, Drak3 said:

@IAmAndrebeat you by a minute. 

Not even a full minute I reckon

[Sauron]

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while keeping the DLC's at their regular price.

Which means you get a glorified demo so Activision-blizz can milk you with microtransactions and DLC if you get hooked.

[Drak3]

Just now, Bouzoo said:

Not even a full minute I reckon

Here's hoping for a thread merge.

[Bouzoo]

1 minute ago, Drak3 said:

Here's hoping for a thread merge.

Well, the man behind the curtains works fast. 

[Dedayog]

2 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Which means you get a glorified demo so Activision-blizz can milk you with microtransactions and DLC if you get hooked.

Which is completely okay with me. I'd rather try it and then pay if I like it, I support this for MMO's and the like.

[IAmAndre]

6 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

Well, the man behind the curtains works fast. 

[Sauron]

2 minutes ago, jstudrawa said:

Which is completely okay with me. I'd rather try it and then pay if I like it, I support this for MMO's and the like.

Free to play games get regular updates for everyone and at worst cosmetic microtransactions, this looks like you'll get the first few waves of content and nothing beyond that unless you pay - which doesn't work in a game like Destiny and is more like a bait into a skinner box than a game you have the option to spend money on if you enjoy it.

[justpoet]

They gave it away on battle.net for a while as well.  I wonder how they'll handle people who already had stuff through battle.net installs, and if everything can easily slide over to the steam version (not that I have much of anything invested, since it didn't hook me).

[Bouzoo]

26 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Which means you get a glorified demo so Activision-blizz can milk you with microtransactions and DLC if you get hooked.

I am gonna assume you haven't played the game. As of the split, Bungie got all rights to D2, Acti-Blizz is getting nothing.

Now as far as mtx goes, they are there, let's not lie, but they are almost nonexistent. I am not gonna pretend they don't exist, but you can basically get everything every week without trying too hard by just playing a moderate amount of time without spending a dime. Would I that they don't exist? Absolutely. 

As far as DLC goes, they have their DLCs here and then, but it's one of better approaches with DLCs with a shit ton of quality content imo. It has not been specified if Shadowkeep will get you Forsaken and the annual pass as well, but seeing that when I bought Forsaken on sale got all previous DLCs, I am gonna assume you will get them. What I was not happy was that you had to buy the annual pass completely to get everything, but seems that is gonna get reworked, you will be able to buy it in parts as it seems. And now, this may be me subjectively, as someone who pays for monthly sub for FFXIV, but if they give us really good content that is worth the money and don't milk us, and based on my experience they don't, I will gladly pay for any game (have spent $0 on mtx in my life). It was worth every $ until now if you ask me. I did get hooked really bad into playing, but I postponed buying everything until the 2nd part of pass was out and so on. Try it, you might get surprised. 

[Bouzoo]

5 minutes ago, justpoet said:

They gave it away on battle.net for a while as well.  I wonder how they'll handle people who already had stuff through battle.net installs, and if everything can easily slide over to the steam version (not that I have much of anything invested, since it didn't hook me).

They said you will be able to transfer everything that you own from b.net to Steam. 

[Bouzoo]

12 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Free to play games get regular updates for everyone and at worst cosmetic microtransactions, this looks like you'll get the first few waves of content and nothing beyond that unless you pay - which doesn't work in a game like Destiny and is more like a bait into a skinner box than a game you have the option to spend money on if you enjoy it.

I am sure they realise the best way to actually sell the important stuff is to let people try it, so they are giving Y1 content away. Same how they gave base game free on B.net, hence why 2 buddies of mine and me stayed, otherwise we would never have tried it. So it is a good approach. You also have to realise is that means that you can get to lv 20 cap, go on few planets, very few, can't remember the rest, and the rest is locked behind the DLC story. It is a demo, but it doesn't depend on mtx or it being a skinner box, and based on their previous attempt, it works more than great. 

[PlayStation 2]

Destiny Fortress 2

[Sauron]

4 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

I am gonna assume you haven't played the game. As of the split, Bungie got all rights to D2, Acti-Blizz is getting nothing.

Bungie then, whatever.

4 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

As far as DLC goes, they have their DLCs here and then, but it's one of better approaches with DLCs with a shit ton of quality content imo. It has not been specified if Shadowkeep will get you Forsaken and the annual pass as well, but seeing that when I bought Forsaken on sale got all previous DLCs, I am gonna assume you will get them.

That's beside the point. Games like destiny rely on people playing the content together. Back when SC2 wasn't free to play you could only play multiplayer with people on the same DLC level; while this theoretically gave players full access to the game they bought, inevitably the competitive scene and the majority of players just leaves for the new expansion. I don't know exactly how destiny works but it seems to me that it has a huge potential of going in that direction - which means even if you technically have access to the content you may end up with nobody to play with unless you spend money on every new DLC.

9 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

And now, this may be me subjectively, as someone who pays for monthly sub for FFXIV, but if they give us really good content that is worth the money and don't milk us, and based on my experience they don't, I will gladly pay for any game (have spent $0 on mtx in my life).

I personally believe subscription based games to be inherent customer milking and exploitation but that's not the matter at hand. If you're ok with it that's great but realize that you didn't get a choice on whether to pay the fee or not if you want to keep playing the game and not give up the huge time investment you made into it.

4 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

I am sure they realise the best way to actually sell the important stuff is to let people try it, so they are giving Y1 content away.

They should call it what it is then, a trial or a demo. Not a "free game" with 10 asterisks.

5 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

You also have to realise is that means that you can get to lv 20 cap, go on few planets, very few, can't remember the rest, and the rest is locked behind the DLC story.

Well there you go, exactly what I was saying.

6 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

it doesn't depend on mtx or it being a skinner box, and based on their previous attempt, it works more than great. 

Call them whatever you wish, DLC purchases are transactions and the player is being heavily pressured to go through them if they want to play the actual game.

[Norwegiantweaker]

destiny is unplayable with out the DLC tho not unplayable but its pretty pointless 

[Guest]

37 minutes ago, IAmAndre said:

It's a great time to be a PC gamer. After splitting with Activision earlier this year, Bungie will now offer for free the content of the 1st year of Destiny 2 and on Steam, while keeping the DLC's at their regular price.

lol ..... that sentence is a bit awkward ( its a great time to be a PC gamer ) we really don't need more sheep following the crowd. Quality of delivered products will only go down more if every studio is awarded with a steady group of buyers!

i did wonder if destiny 2 will still be available through the blizzard portal ( yea with sheep i mean the same guys who used the shop exclusivity, not the game exclusivity as reason for why PC gaming was going to hell ) but if my account transfers nicely to steam i'm happy all to-gether

[MeatFeastMan]

NO NO NO. Wrong way round Bungie! The DLC's should have become free downloads while the game stays at it's original price.. I can't stand the sight of Paid DLC's. They are old news and shouldn't exist any longer. The current Battlefield V model is the way forward for AAA games in the future. Get your money from the base price and cosmetics, not from DLC.

 

This is what annoys me about Destiny and Destiny 2. I loved them both (Destiny 2 didn't quite have enough content for me, but it was still decent) but the Paid DLC really put me off big time. It must be scrapped and they need to find a better approach. Paid DLC's mess up playercount, we've seen it time and time again.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, MeatFeastMan said:

NO NO NO. Wrong way round Bungie! The DLC's should have become free downloads while the game stays at it's original price.. I can't stand the sight of Paid DLC's. They are old news and shouldn't exist any longer. The current Battlefield V model is the way forward for AAA games in the future. Get your money from the base price and cosmetics, not from DLC.

 

This is what annoys me about Destiny and Destiny 2. I loved them both (Destiny 2 didn't quite have enough content for me, but it was still decent) but the Paid DLC really put me off big time. It must be scrapped and they need to find a better approach. Paid DLC's mess up playercount, we've seen it time and time again.

Why the big protest i wonder? i mean extra work does need to be payed no matter its value

[Aimi]

Just now, MeatFeastMan said:

The DLC's should have become free downloads while the game stays at it's original price..

In an ideal world sure, but making the base game free means it's easier to sell whatever DLC you push

[Bouzoo]

31 minutes ago, Sauron said:

That's beside the point. Games like destiny rely on people playing the content together. Back when SC2 wasn't free to play you could only play multiplayer with people on the same DLC level; while this theoretically gave players full access to the game they bought, inevitably the competitive scene and the majority of players just leaves for the new expansion. I don't know exactly how destiny works but it seems to me that it has a huge potential of going in that direction - which means even if you technically have access to the content you may end up with nobody to play with unless you spend money on every new DLC.

You mean like every other expansion in every MMO ever? That is the point whole point of the games, playing new content together? I mean in D2 and FFXIV as examples you can play everything together with different DLC/expansion level, you won't just be able to do everything that is in the new DLCs. You are not locked out of the community. 

 

31 minutes ago, Sauron said:

I personally believe subscription based games to be inherent customer milking and exploitation but that's not the matter at hand. If you're ok with it that's great but realize that you didn't get a choice on whether to pay the fee or not if you want to keep playing the game and not give up the huge time investment you made into it.

I, and a lot of FFXIVs community have a very, very different view. First, it's literally the best anti moron filter out there. Secondly, and more important, we do get big updates every 3 month, with smaller updates here and there. But it's the actual amount of content that makes it worth it. PVP, PVE, raids, gear, new areas, new this, new that, when it all adds down I am completely up for paying for it because it really is a huge amount. Some is lower quality, some is higher, depending on what you prefer, But if we're honest here, they might want to put more money into servers. The moment it goes F2P I, and again, a lot of community are gonna stop playing it. But then again, so many sub based MMOs failed so there is a general view that paying for sub is milking so I can't blame you. 

 

31 minutes ago, Sauron said:

They should call it what it is then, a trial or a demo. Not a "free game" with 10 asterisks.

I mean, it's not really a trial or a demo. You can play it forever, and it is the whole Y1 content. It's just that game expanded more. F2P probably is the closest term? I really don't know.

 

31 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Call them whatever you wish, DLC purchases are transactions and the player is being heavily pressured to go through them if they want to play the actual game.

Again, as is every MMO expansion or actually many SP expansions (looking at you Cities: Skylines). The point of both is that people want new content. I think you have a wrong view, per se. Most studios will probably want to milk you and yes, there are more and more of them, but because of those studios those few that actually give you something in return get unnoticed. I am not gonna pretend those studios are our friend or w/e, they care about profit, what matters is that do they give you something in return, as in your moneys worth.

I mean, should they just abandon the game with no new content or give everything for years to come for free and let it die? I don't understand what you're expecting as an alternative. It's funny because I see people praising for instance Witcher 3 for their paid DLCs how awesome they are and yes, worth the money. I won't lie that D2 has the best system, far from it. 

[Bouzoo]

8 minutes ago, MeatFeastMan said:

NO NO NO. Wrong way round Bungie! The DLC's should have become free downloads while the game stays at it's original price.. I can't stand the sight of Paid DLC's. They are old news and shouldn't exist any longer. The current Battlefield V model is the way forward for AAA games in the future. Get your money from the base price and cosmetics, not from DLC.

 

This is what annoys me about Destiny and Destiny 2. I loved them both (Destiny 2 didn't quite have enough content for me, but it was still decent) but the Paid DLC really put me off big time. It must be scrapped and they need to find a better approach. Paid DLC's mess up playercount, we've seen it time and time again.

It is a way to get new players, like how they did with giving out base game for free on b.net. They are probably aware no one will buy the base game to try it, the earnings are in expansions. Though you get Curse of Osiris and Warming for free as well. Not the big expansions. Now if you can buy new the new one and get Forsaken and Season Pass I don't see a problem with that. It will be interesting to see how they will go after that.

As far as player count goes, ti seems pretty high, much higher than pre Forsaken, I can only assume that people are ok with current approach. Mind you while Osiris and Warming weren't anything special, Forsaken changed everything and a lot of people returned. 

[suicidalfranco]

so give the base game, which is empty and trash, for free, and expect people to stay and buy the content, that should have been there on release, that has the thing that actually give a bit of meaning to the game

 

boi

[Eaglerino]

1 hour ago, Sauron said:

Which means you get a glorified demo so Activision-blizz can milk you with microtransactions and DLC if you get hooked.

well right now their expansion prices are $40 for the main one then extra for the year pass that's ending in a few months, still not that cheap lol