Destiny 2 was today confirmed as the official title of the next entry in Bungie’s blockbuster franchise.
The studio revealed as much on Twitter with a simple yet powerful image bearing the title.
Numerous rumours have pointed to an early September release — which would mark exactly three years since the release of its predecessor — with a beta in the July-August period, coming to PS4 first. Neither Activision nor Bungie have responded to these leaks.
Back in February, Activision teased the prospect of a sequel to 2013′ Destiny, but without going into much detail.
Speaking during its financial conference call for calender year 2016, Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg revealed at the time details of the publisher’s upcoming fiscal year, and insisted that Destiny 2 was destined for a 2017 release.
Despite having shown absolutely nothing about the game, Hirshberg said developer Bungie had done a “very nice job on two fronts”.
One of those fronts was that the game would appease fans of the original, and that a lot of what made the first game great and so popular will be carried over into the sequel.
The second front was that it would offer a “great cinematic story”, which he explained as being a “real focus”.
He went further, teasing Destiny 2‘s narrative potential by saying it would have “a great case of memorable, relatable characters”.
Bungie has spoken briefly about the game as well. Speaking earlier this month on its official blog, it detailed how it was approaching character creation and transfer.
“Sequels represent the start of a new adventure for every player, with new worlds to explore, new stories to tell, new powers to acquire, new loot to earn, and much more,” the studio said.
In line with this vision, players will not be able transfer most of their personalised character over to the sequel.
“We believe this is the best path forward. It allows us to introduce the major advancements and improvements that all of us expect from a sequel, ensuring it will be the best game we can create, unencumbered by the past,” Bungie said.
So what does this mean, and what will you be able to carry over?
All power, possessions, currency, and Eververse items will not be able to be brought forward from Destiny to Destiny 2.
While Destiny will have its last ever live event — Age of Triumph — soon, with a reveal next Wednesday, Bungie insists that servers will stay active once Destiny 2 is released, so you’ll be able to return to the game and still access your character.
Interestingly, Bungie said that if you have achieved a Light Level of 20 and have completed the Black Garden story mission, you’ll be able to carry over your character personalisation, including class, race, gender, face, hair, and marking selections.