Amid a tumultuous period for the developer, Bungie has fully unveiled its plans for the future of Destiny 2, which will include two mid-sized expansions per year starting in 2025.
Shared via an official blog post, Bungie explained that plans for the developer's new "multiyear saga" titled Codename: Frontiers will kick off with Codename: Apollo and Behemoth, the first expansions under this new content pipeline.
According to game director Tyson Green, the pivot to mid-sized expansions rather than a big annual update will allow Bungie more freedom to develop content more consistently, without focusing their entire efforts on a big single content drop a year.
Furthermore, the storytelling and how players interact with story elements will change, with Codename: Frontiers opting for a "nonlinear storytelling" format.
As explained by narrative director Alison Lührs, starting with Codename: Apollo, players will get to decide which story threads to unravel first.
Previously, in stories like The Final Shape, you experienced the story as A to B to C to D in a nice straight line. In Codename: Apollo, our story takes place over dozens of threads you’ll explore and discover. So, when you land on our brand new location, the story starts at A, and then you can choose if you want to explore C first, or try and get into B, or maybe investigate D.
Green mentioned that two of the biggest inspirations for their approach are metroidvanias and roguelikes, two genres that heavily incentivize nonlinear exploration and experimentation with gear and weapons.
As for how much content each expansion will bring, players can expect each one to bring new story content, locations, missions, weapons, gear, raids, and dungeons.
The content pipeline for Codename: Frontiers
Alongside that, each expansion will be broken down into two updates. For Codename: Apollo, Arsenal and Surge will take place in the Summer and Fall of 2025 respectively.
Despite just being introduced with Episode: Echoes, the episodic format will be gone by the time Apollo drops. Instead, each expansion will have two major updates which will release within three months of one another.
The major updates will come with a rewards pass (similar to the current season pass system) and a combination of new and reprised content that will include strikes, exotic missions, and weekly events. So essentially, it seems Bungie will be going back to their previous seasonal format, at least in practice if not name.
With questions about the future of Destiny 2 following massive layoffs at Bungie, it seems the developer intends the game to stick around for years to come and fans will certainly hope Codename: Frontiers delivers an exciting, fresh experience.