A month after the first rumours came out, Bungie has now confirmed that Destiny 2: The Final Shape has been delayed. The final chapter of the Destiny 2 saga will release on 4th June 2024.
The Destiny 2 team writes:
The Final Shape is the culmination of the first ten years of Destiny storytelling and, for Guardians everywhere, countless hours spent together. We want to honor that journey, so we’re taking the time we need to deliver an even bigger and bolder vision, one that we hope will be remembered and treasured for years to come. […]
We know you’re eager to get your hands on The Final Shape. In that sense, delays aren’t fun. For our part, we are excited to have the extra time needed to bring our vision for The Final Shape to life for all of you. We’re looking forward to sharing much more in April, including all-new gameplay, to showcase the significant content additions currently in development.
With more time to fill than expected for the current expansion, Destiny 2: Lightfall, Bungie has revealed a few new events and systems. Season of the Wish is starting tomorrow and will run all the way through to The Final Shape in June. This will give the final batch of story content, most of which will still run from November through to February.
In February there will be a new weekly progression system based on quests called Wishes, and there will be a new Moments of Triumph run with new rewards. The Guardian Games will move to March and focus on class vs. class competition, and then in April there will be a two-month content drop for all players called Destiny 2: Into the Light. The PvP Strike Team will also be introducing three new PvP maps in May.
It was around a month ago that first reports came of The Final Shape’s delay, which was originally expected to release in February. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier broke the news, with Bungie going on to announce job cuts as the company struggles to hit targets and earnings. It is also reported that Marathon, a reboot of sorts of the developers very first game, has also been delayed until 2025, although that title never had an official release date.
This will be the second time in Destiny 2’s history that Bungie has missed a major yearly expansion launch. Initially the studio was releasing big expansions each September, but the pandemic, lockdowns and shift to remote work in 2020 meant that The Witch Queen was delayed to early 2021 and the yearly cadence shifted back accordingly.
The problem this time, though, is that the current year’s expansion landed rather flat. For our review of Destiny 2: Lightfall, Tuffcub said, “Destiny 2 is still one of the best feeling games to play, but compared to the inventive, personal story told in The Witch Queen, Lightfall is dull and totally inconsequential. What a disappointment.”
Bungie are clearly looking to avoid repeating that sentiment, but stretching out the disappointing Lightfall for an extra few months is not going to help keep players invested…
Source: Bungie
