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Kotaku Sources: Destiny 2 coming to PC [UPDATE: Loads of extra info]

jbug617

Banned
http://kotaku.com/sources-destiny-2-coming-to-pc-aims-to-feel-like-a-to-1787153460

co-sign the Gaf report
Destiny 2, the currently unannounced 2017 sequel to Destiny, is coming to PC, according to several sources. The first game was exclusive to consoles, much to the dismay of Destiny fans with beefy computers. We also hear that Bungie aims to make Destiny 2 feel like an entirely new game rather than a Taken King-style expansion—even if that means leaving old characters behind.

The PC rumor first popped up on NeoGAF today. This afternoon, a GAF poster named benny_a wrote that a friend at Activision had told him that Destiny’s much-anticipated sequel will indeed be on PC. The publisher informed employees about the news during an internal presentation today, according to benny_a. He added another interesting tidbit: that the Activision-owned studio Vicarious Visions is also helping out on Destiny 2. Although that isn’t public knowledge, I had heard the same thing a few weeks ago, which adds credence to benny_a’s report.

Earlier this year, I’d also heard from a person familiar with Bungie’s plans that Destiny 2, which is currently slated for a late 2017 release, will be on PC. This isn’t a shocker. Releasing Destiny’s sequel on PC will give Bungie access to a giant new potential audience, one that wasn’t around for the first game. Ditching last-gen consoles, which Bungie has already done for the recently released Rise of Iron expansion, ensures that they no longer have to worry about antiquated memory restrictions.

Feeling like a new game
Over the past few months, I’ve also heard that Bungie’s leadership wants Destiny 2 to feel like a proper sequel, even if that means leaving old planets, characters, and activities behind. In conversations with me, people connected to Bungie have made comparisons to Blizzard’s Diablo 2, which iterated on the first game in some incredible ways but didn’t carry over characters or content from Diablo. I don’t know exactly how much will change in Destiny 2, but all signs point to the developers starting from scratch. “D2 is a completely different game,” said one person familiar with development. “The Taken King was a reboot for Destiny 1 to fix small things. This is the overhaul to fix big things.”

One of the terms we’ll be hearing often with Destiny 2, according to sources, is “play-in destinations”—a new activity model that will revamp how Destiny’s world functions. The plan, from what I’ve heard, is for Destiny 2's planets to feel more populated with towns, outposts, and quests that are more interesting than the patrol missions you can get in Destiny.

Jason also reporting it's not a lock that your character will carry over to Destiny 2 but Bungie might have something to reward players of Destiny 1.


Mod Edit:

Yea, it's coming to PC. From what I'm told the decision to restructure was made thanks to a major memory ceiling being reached on last gen with regard to the Rise of Iron expansion, which was set to launch in the spring, not fall. Bungie decided to push out D2 since it was behind and needed much more iteration, and took advantage of the Rise of Iron delays to use that as the content stop gap for the fall of this year.

Destiny 2 is being overhauled so that they can build upon it in the future without having to work within the frame work limitations that D1 setup. Right now, the way things play out, they have to introduce playspaces so that players can engage in systems or activities, but it creates a huge barrier that must be overcome on both the networking & design side so, they're going to do more open playspaces that incorporate towns, outposts, etc into more common areas. This means fewer hardlines for areas and having them be gated by menus. Goal is to have players conducting things & making activity decisions while still in control of their character, instead of having to exit out into an activity hub. Think of how in WoW, you hit a button and queue into activities you want to do all while still playing your character.

Major narrative changes are on board for D2. Both in terms of plot direction, pacing & structure. Major focus is going to be on the Cabal & Saturn. Saturn is a playspace is set to be bigger than all of the playspaces currently implemented in the game combined. This is in large part of the scale of playspaces being redesigned, so it'll be both bigger & denser with activities. There's a reason Guardians take the fight to Saturn.

Major changes to the engine are occurring. Their render tech has gone through some major iteration thanks in large part to getting to approach it without having last-gen as a limit. Because of this, they are still undecided what, if any, of Destiny's old content, both in terms of playspace, areas, Strikes & raids, will be available through D2. There is talk in possibly allowing D1 remain as its own client, which flies against how Destiny currently operates, where as the new content renders the old client & content obsolete.

Live team has been going through some iteration so that they may continue to support Destiny with content after a major content drop, but they are stuck between a rock & a hard place. The live team is trying to support a game running on an old engine with its older tools, whereas the bulk of development is on the engine framework & enjoying new tools. Because of this, the Live team is largely handcuffed, so don't really expect a whole lot of post-launch content for D1 in the next year.

However, starting with the launch of D2, we will see far more substantial content dropping in the time between yearly releases, as the game & engine & live team have all been planned to support that going forward. Team is aware that they need more substantial content throughout the year, not just at the end of it.

If they do drop D1 content, it likely won't be permanent - they might reintroduce areas in a more 'D2' fleshed out way. So we might lose temporary access to these places, then regain it or have to fight back for control of it at a later point in the plot. This means we'll get to see older areas or activities through the perspective of the newer content, which also means the older areas might expand considerably by the time we get back to them, since the design goal for playspaces is to now make them both way bigger & way denser with activities.

Edit: New races & factions are planned. No idea on whats happening with regards to classes however. New enemies within factions are also going to be introduced. Take the Sions for the Cabal for example - they are going to get fleshed out in D2.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
As written by Jason Schreier.

There's a fair bit more than I'm summarizing here: http://kotaku.com/sources-destiny-2-coming-to-pc-aims-to-feel-like-a-to-1787153460

Some Highlights:
- It reiterates what benny_a said about the game coming to PC and Vicarious Visions assisting.
- They're very seriously considering leaving your characters/equipment/etc behind.
- The game is internally compared to Diablo 1 -> Diablo 2 in terms of the amount of changes they want to make.
- One of the new things mentioned that regions would be much more fleshed out with towns and outposts mixed directly in with playspaces.
- There's explanations of the reasonings for the above along with additional details on the items.
- There's talk about internal conditions and changes at Bungie.
 

Nibel

Member
Jason knows more about Destiny shit than about himself so I think this is highly likely to happen

I wonder if they're thinking about cross-platform stuff
 

DryvBy

Member
I'd still get it on PS4 as my Des1 content would carry over. Unless that's not a thing anymore.

edit: Quick re-read saw what I was saying isn't really a thing maybe. That would really suck.
 

DNAbro

Member
As written by Jason Schreier: http://kotaku.com/sources-destiny-2-coming-to-pc-aims-to-feel-like-a-to-1787153460

Some Highlights:
- One of the new things mentioned that regions would be much more fleshed out with towns and outposts mixed directly in with playspaces.

This sounds so nice. I always hated how there is absolutely nothing on any of these planets except murder things.

Also I'm 100% okay with my character disappearing. I like him, but I don't need him.
 

hatchx

Banned
I wasn't huge on the first Destiny, but the core gameplay and mechanics were really fun. I can't help but being really excited for Destiny 2, especially with all the dev time they've had while they release DLC updates for the first one. I have a feeling Destiny 2 will be what most of us wanted Destiny 1 to be.
 
Directly in my veins

No interest in the base game at this point, but bring on some super rad Crucible goodness, and some single player stuff I'd actually be interested in
 
Jason also reporting it's not a lock that your character will carry over to Destiny 2 but Bungie might have something to reward players of Destiny 1.


the comparison to d1 to d2 makes sense, then. Though If Destiny 1 ends with Rise of Iron(is it?) then that's a shitty way to go out and they definitely didn't "earn" their sequel.
 
Really excited for them to get a fresh start as Rise of Iron feels a little stale. Would like to see a bigger shake-up come next year.

That said, this worries me a bit...

- They're very seriously considering leaving your characters/equipment/etc behind.

I know this may be an inevitability, but it does go against the initial promise that we'd be able to carry our guardians through the entire road map of Destiny and I worry that it could push a lot of players out. I suppose only time will tell!
 

StMeph

Member
I would definitely switch to PC if that becomes available, and I have no problems about wanting to start over as a soft reboot.

I would like some way to get some bonus/incentive for playing Destiny (across platforms!) if possible though.
 
- They're very seriously considering leaving your characters/equipment/etc behind.


So is there anything they said before the release of Destiny 1 that wont turn out to be bullshit?
 

Kalentan

Member
- They're very seriously considering leaving your characters/equipment/etc behind.


So is there anything they said before the release of Destiny 1 that wont turn out to be bullshit?

Honestly I may just say: "Fuck it" to Destiny 2 if that's true.

Such a dick move.

"Your Guardian will be with you your whole 10 year journey! Oh wait did we say 10 year? We meant 3 year journey. Say bye!"
 
I don't have any expectations, but if they were to somehow be able to keep the amazing gameplay and increase the amount of content even over what was there at the end of Destiny 1 (That was the largest issue for me), then I'm fucking in again.
 

Hagi

Member
If your character doesn't carry over that's some serious bullshit. Everything else sounds cool but my expectations will be in the gutter till the game is actually out.
 

Qaloon

Member
giphy.gif
 

DryvBy

Member
If your character doesn't carry over that's some serious bullshit. Everything else sounds cool but my expectations will be in the gutter till the game is actually out.

Yup. Part of the reason I've been spending a lot of time trying to get shaders is because I thought all this was carrying over. If it doesn't, our guardians are created out of vain.
 

jbug617

Banned
Jason knows more about Destiny shit than about himself so I think this is highly likely to happen

I wonder if they're thinking about cross-platform stuff

you think Sony locked down the promotion and console exclusive items again? That game was big for PS4.
 

Gator86

Member
Burn literally everything to the ground, Bungie. The gameplay is great, as is the art style and music. Everything else can go. There's nothing worth keeping. Make real character classes that are actually different! Make guns that are not almost all identical! Include a story! Make a great game please...
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Wasn't destiny supposed to last like 10 years?

The contract was for four distinct games with four distinct expansion packs released over a 10 year period, with the first two years having no games released.

They're actually going slower than planned.
 

Rymuth

Member
Sounds like they might just pull off that 'see those mountains' thing we were promised. Exciting times ahead.
 
Destiny feels so good to play - it's so close to being an awesome game, but there are a few things that bother me. Load screens are too long, there is too much time between quests, and farming for mats is the worst. Also the story may as well not exist. If they can fix that stuff, I won't care if my character can't move over. That would potentially make the game incredible.
 

Doorman

Member
I didn't realize that players held their characters in such high regard. Guess that's just me then.

I can see why they would consider leaving the old stuff behind, though. There's still a big player-base, but a lot of folks from the initial hype-wave have dropped off over time, and for them and the people who never tried the game in the first place, having them drop into a day 1 of Destiny 2 only to see a ton of people already in there with level 40 powerhouses would suck a little bit. How do you maintain a sense of progress for everyone if you were to start at such disparate points? Would early D2 missions be a total joke for people with D1 characters? What if they completely revamp the way classes and gear work as a part of improving things for the sequel? At that point what would really be left of anybody's character anyway, outside of their gender, species, and face?
 

Real Hero

Member
The contract was for four distinct games with four distinct expansion packs released over a 10 year period, with the first two years having no games released.

They're actually going slower than planned.
I thought it was the the expectation you could to do one character through it all or why make a big deal about it?
 
If your character doesn't carry over that's some serious bullshit. Everything else sounds cool but my expectations will be in the gutter till the game is actually out.

It'd be cool I if cosmetics carry over but I'm ok with them completely moving on from Destiny 1 as long as the gameplay is good
 
The rumours make it sound a bit closer to what I was expecting the first game to be tbh. I'm hoping that these rumours don't end up lacking substance!
 

therapist

Member
ohhh nice!
Ill probably get it on pc , hopefully theres Xplay co-op.
I dont expect xplay-pvp , that would be a slaughter imo
 

Wallach

Member
I don't care in the slightest if anything of my character or progress carries over. I think it'd be cooler if I actually found some record or acknowledgement of my specific Guardian in the sequel than to actually continue with the same character but with whatever stupid story explanation for why my shit was all reset.
 
As written by Jason Schreier.

There's a fair bit more than I'm summarizing here: http://kotaku.com/sources-destiny-2-coming-to-pc-aims-to-feel-like-a-to-1787153460

Some Highlights:
- It reiterates what benny_a said about the game coming to PC and Vicarious Visions assisting.
- They're very seriously considering leaving your characters/equipment/etc behind.
- The game is internally compared to Diablo 1 -> Diablo 2 in terms of the amount of changes they want to make.
- One of the new things mentioned that regions would be much more fleshed out with towns and outposts mixed directly in with playspaces.
- There's explanations of the reasonings for the above along with additional details on the items.
- There's talk about internal conditions and changes at Bungie.

I'm really curious on what the 'internal conditions and changes at Bungie' actually means with all the crazy shit thats come out about the original game (including what happened to the story).

The biggest problem I had with Destiny is that it felt like it wanted to be a shooter MMO with raids and everything but most of the boss/enemy mechanics felt like they were ripped out of MMORPG's and didn't ever translate well to shooters and because of that EVERY boss was just a giant bullet sponge which was not fun gameplay to me. It didn't help that people have managed to find a way to break every single raid thats been in the game so I could never really take the raiding element seriously. Many MMORPG's have raids and there are at times ways to cheese things but very very rarely are any raid fights that you can actually break when they are current, and with how much Bungie hyped up those raids... I was really disappointed.

Destiny 2 will sell a lot because of the name alone but they'll really have to show something amazing to make me even consider coming back.
 
Honestly I may just say: "Fuck it" to Destiny 2 if that's true.

Such a dick move.

"Your Guardian will be with you your whole 10 year journey! Oh wait did we say 10 year? We meant 3 year journey. Say bye!"

Kind of the same/

TBH I dont care if they reset stats and guns. I just want to continue to play as my character from Day 1.

That seemed like the entire point of the grand 10 year plan of Destiny.

I never expected EVERYTHING to carry over game to game. I kind of expected something similar to carrying over your save from Mass Effect to Mass Effect 2. You keep your appearance and a few small bonuses.
 
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