10 years in, Bungie shifts Destiny 2 pacing in live service shake-up

Destiny 2 is getting a new change to its release model. Instead of weekly story drops, the second and third episodes for 2024-2025, "Revenant" and "Heresy," will have their story missions come all at once.

Bungie revealed this news during a recent livestream, saying all three of "Revenant's" missions will drop when it starts in October. The move was made in response to player feedback about the still-ongoing "Echoes" episode, which has doled out its story each week since early June.

On Twitter, the developer said this provides players "an opportunity to play at their own pace." Per narrative director Alison Luhrs, the new change is a "trial of something new" that may or may not stick around, depending on feedback.

An old Destiny 2 can still learn new tricks

Weekly drops have been a part of Destiny 2 since its shift to a seasonal schedule with 2018's Destiny 2: Forsaken. Initially, these launched in three-month periods to continue the story of whichever expansion they spawned from, like Shadowkeep or Beyond Light.

Along with giving Bungie a recurring revenue stream (passes for each season were initially $10), it gave players a reason to return on a week-by-week basis. Admittedly, this came at the cost of potential stagnation.

Conversely, an all-at-once drop raises drought concerns, a frequent discussion point when it comes to live-service games. It's akin to when a TV show releases all episodes at once: you may lose a sense of community, or a show fades away faster than a weekly cadence.

However long Bungie sticks to this change, it will be looked at by other studios making live-service games. Both Destiny games and their post-launch methods inspire and inform other ongoing titles, shooter or otherwise.

More broadly, this and Respawn's upcoming changes to Apex Legends' battle pass system may signal a shift in the structure and monetization methods within the elive-service genre.