Destiny 2, 3’s future just keeps getting bleaker, according to new DLC and development info

Destiny 2’s future is in for some serious changes following big layoffs at Bungie. And according to a new report from Jason Schreier, that future won’t include the big, yearly DLC expansions that have become the game’s hallmark.

In a Bloomberg report today, Schreier cited both current and former Bungie employees in the wake of the company laying off more than 200 people on July 31, prompting mass speculation about the studio and the game’s future. Schreier reported that amidst the future plans to change Bungie and Destiny 2 were plans to change the content release structure the game has followed for the last several years, where a big DLC expansion came to the game roughly once a year. Going forward, Destiny 2 content added to the game aims to be smaller in scope, according to Schreier.

“During one recent meeting, a company leader told attendees that sales of each expansion had declined year over year, including June’s The Final Shape,” Schreier’s report says in giving Bungie’s reasoning for changing its release model.

While the report notes that some remaining staff feel “optimistic” for the game’s future with Tyson Green now at the helm as game director, there was also some bad news for any Guardians looking for the next evolution of Destiny to be Destiny 3.

According to Schreier, Destiny 3 isn’t even in development—nor has it been in the past. Payback, the project that was reported to be a spin-off game set in the Destiny universe, wasn’t considered to be a mainline Destiny sequel by Bungie, but Schreier described it as one of Bungie’s “big bets” in expanding and pushing the Destiny universe forward. Now, that project is dead, leaving Bungie to focus on its new content strategy for Destiny 2 along with extraction shooter Marathon.

It’s good to hear people inside Bungie believe in the new content model, and Schreier’s reporting labeled new content coming to the game as “modeled after Into the Light,” which should be a silver lining for many Destiny players. But for a game that’s made its name on renowned expansions like The Witch Queen and even the critically acclaimed The Final Shape, doing away with big, yearly expansions will be a tough adjustment for many players.

And it’s impossible to ignore the worst-case scenario in all this: The new content strategy eventually morphing into a pattern of less content for more money like countless other live-service titles. It’s certainly not a given this will happen to Destiny, but it’s not impossible, either.