Destiny 2 will be available for PC exclusively on Blizzard’s app

In arguably the biggest news to come out of today’s Destiny 2 gameplay reveal event, the game’s developers, Bungie, announced that it will be exclusive to Blizzard’s Battle.net platform on the PC platform.

Destiny 2 will launch on PS4 and Xbox One on September 8, with the PC version coming on an unspecified date, but the news of how players would access the new game on PC was up in the air until today. Rumors about Steam and a dedicated Bungie app had floated around, but Blizzard Entertainment CEO Mike Morhaime revealed the news in a recorded statement at the end of the presentation.

The original Destiny was only available on consoles, so the move to PC is huge for growing the series’ installation base and potentially growing it into a competitive title. Having the game available on the same launcher as other Activision Blizzard titles like Overwatch, World of Warcraft, and Heroes of the Storm is a plus for the publisher.

After leaving behind the Halo series to begin work on Destiny, Bungie signed a 10-year publishing deal with Activision. The move to include Destiny 2 on Battle.net is something that could only have happened under the Activision banner, as both Blizzard and Bungie reside there for the time being.

The inclusion of the game on Battle.net should also alleviate some concerns about cheating and hacking in multiplayer, as Blizzard has been known to be harsh on those looking to use certain exploits to gain advantages.

Bungie also announced that the Crucible, Destiny’s competitive multiplayer, would be moved to 4v4 game modes across the board. The original Destiny’s Crucible featured mostly 6v6 playlists, so this looks like a move to better cater to a more hardcore, potential esports audience. A newly-announced revamped clan system is also very inviting to the new, wider audience.

Today’s gameplay reveal stream reached well over 400,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch at its peak, shattering the previous high set a reveal stream for the Destiny: The Taken King expansion back in 2015.