Destiny 2’s in-game group finder gets delayed again—but a beta is coming soon

Before Lightfall launched, Destiny 2 promised players a looking-for-group system that sidestepped the need to use third-party sites and make endgame content accessible for more players. However, it was delayed to season 23, and with only a week until launch, it’s been delayed once again.

In a blog breaking down the details of an upcoming beta period for Destiny 2’s new Fireteam Finder system, Bungie announced that it had come to a “fork in the road” with the feature’s development and had a “difficult choice to make.” The developers have opted to extend their internal tests out to the masses for a stress test on Nov. 30, followed by a public beta period slated to start sometime in December. With this extended period of testing put into account, a full release of Fireteam Finder isn’t expected until late January—even then, this is dependent on the beta period yielding useful data.

“We’ve made a ton of progress on Fireteam Finder, including on many of the unexpected technical challenges,” the team wrote. “We’ve decided it’s better to bring you along for the ride rather than make you wait. We hope you agree.” It isn’t just because players are eager to get their hands on the system sooner rather than later either. As the blog stated, it’s “difficult” to prove the viability of a social feature from only tests within the studio. No matter how many employees get involved, the final number of testers will only be a fraction of the player count that will interact with the system when it launches publicly.

The initial stress test taking place on Nov. 30 is available exclusively for raids. The plan is to run it from 11am CT to 7pm CT, but Bungie warns that there are “countless scenarios” where the test might have to come to an end earlier. “We’re going to be monitoring the results of the initial Raids Stress Test closely and considering opening more activities as we progress with the end goal of having a Fireteam Finder option for every activity in the game.”

Ultimately, despite the delay of its full release, players can still expect to get their hands on a dedicated LFG system during Season of the Wish. They just need to be prepared for it to be subject to numerous potential technical issues. Considering that Destiny 2 fans have been waiting for this feature since its initial projected launch date alongside the Lightfall expansion though, its imperfections are unlikely to be of a great bother to the majority.