Official ‘Destiny 2’ Image Teases A Burning Last City
The first official piece of artwork for Destiny 2 landed with little official fanfare Monday. Activision and Bungie teased the sequel to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One shooter with foreboding image of the Last City in flames.
The Destiny 2 announcement tease was shared via the game’s official Twitter account with no accompanying press release or any other information from Activision or Bungie. This follows a leak last week of posters containing a release date and confirmation of a beta.
Today’s image tease is most notable for the sight of the Last City on fire beneath the protection of the Traveler. The last remnants of humanity built a city here due to the protection afforded by the mysterious sphere from outer space who gave birth to Ghosts, and thus the Guardians, with its last defensive act against the Darkness.
If Destiny 2 does indeed see the fall of the Last City, the franchise will move towards putting humanity in even more dire straits. This aligns with previous rumors floating around about the game suggesting an attack on the last refuge of humanity sends Guardians further out into the solar system, past Mars.
Additional rumors suggest much of the action will move to Saturn with a major focus on the Cabal, though there’s no obvious connection in the leaked posters or the new tease. The Saturn setting is reportedly larger than all current spaces combined and will be implemented in a more open-world manner versus the hardline zones Destiny currently employs. This could mean the end of going to orbit to hop from activity to activity.
The new play areas are said to be populated with “towns, outposts, and quests” to replace the current patrol missions and social areas. This will treat the game more like World of Warcraft, for example, rather than what PS4 and Xbox One owners saw in the original.
The likely reveal schedule for Destiny 2, minus any additional leaks, should start soon with posters in the hands of retailers, Bungie and Activision teasing it, and Destiny: Age of Triumph launching Tuesday afternoon. A broader announcement and demo will come at E3 in June likely during the PlayStation press conference. This should include details on the beta and how fans should be able to join. One note to keep an eye on is whether the rumored PC version of the game becomes official.
The changes in game structure come with some consequences, however. Players will be able to transfer their existing characters to Destiny 2, but just their character. All experience, perks, armor, weapons, and items will not carry over to the new game.
The Destiny 2 release date, according to the leaked posters, is September 8, 2017. The month lines up with previous releases of the main game and the two major expansions in the franchise. The day, however, lands on Friday. The typical release date for new games is Tuesday in North America and Thursday in Europe. However, Activision has released the last two Call of Duty titles – Black Ops 3 and Infinite Warfare – on a Friday. A start of the weekend release for Destiny is certainly not out of the question given the size and dedication of the fanbase.
Additionally, the posters appear to confirm the return of PlayStation timed exclusive content with the sequel. It will be interesting to see if Activision and Bungie were able to change the terms of the exclusivity arrangement with Sony as the current one was detrimental to both PlayStation and Xbox owners. Even though PlayStation players were able to enjoy certain content not available to those on Xbox, exclusive content like Strikes were kept out of some playlists and weekly rotations and exclusive Exotic weapons never appeared in Xur’s inventory during the timed-exclusive period.
[Featured Image by Bungie/Activision]
