Confirming previous rumors to be true, Activision executive Eric Hirshberg reaffirmed that Destiny 2 is on course to launch fall 2017, and it’ll seemingly be “more accessible” to newcomers and lapsed fans alike.
Word comes by way of the publisher’s recent earnings call, confirming that Activision pulled in a staggering $6.6 billion in net revenue throughout the course of 2016. That’s up 42 percent over 2015’s take ($4.66 billion), and much of that success can be traced back to Blizzard’s über-popular shooter Overwatch, which now stands as the most successful intellectual property in Activision’s decorated history. As for Destiny, we know that Activision and developer Bungie essentially pushed development by an entire year to reboot the story. Those developers behind The Taken King expansion are at the helm for the sequel and here, Hirshberg explains why Destiny 2 will be more welcoming to newcomers, but not at the expense of existing players.
“The cornerstone of that is a great cinematic story. That’s been a real focus with a great cast of memorable, relatable characters, coupled with some very nice ways to make the game more accessible to a casual player, without losing anything that our core players love. We’ve made it more accessible to someone who just wants to have a great more casual first-person action experience.”
If the original Destiny delivered an addicting shared-world shooter polished to the nth degree, Bungie’s franchise-starter came up short in the story department. To their credit, that’s a weakness that the studio has acknowledged, and The Taken King proved to be a marked improvement on the original experience. Here’s hoping that success continues through the release of Destiny‘s follow-up in 2017.
Destiny 2 is expected to release for PS4 and Xbox One before the year’s end and if preemptive leaks are anything to go by, may well feature a plot involving a Cabal invasion on the Tower.