Despite the fact that a sequel to Bungie’s open world shooter Destiny has yet to be officially announced, publisher Activision has maintained since its initial confirmation earlier this year that Destiny 2 will eventually see the light of day at some point in the future. When exactly that will be remains to be seen, but we do know that both Bungie and Activision are aiming for a 2017 release – a target that is still “on track” to be met, says Activision’s Eric Hirshberg.
Providing an update on the current state of Destiny 2‘s development today at the publisher’s financial briefing (via VG247), Hirshberg said, “we’re on track and excited about what we think is going to be an awesome sequel for Destiny in 2017.” He declined to share much more than that, but does reveal that the sequel is being designed to excite not just current players, “but also to broaden the appeal even further, bringing in new fans and bringing back old fans as well.”
Whether Destiny 2 manages to achieve such a goal may well come down to if Bungie can manage to restructure the way it handles content updates. It’s no secret the the original game underwent several drastic changes during development, forcing Bungie to push back a full sequel originally intended for 2015 and putting The Taken King expansion in its place.
Ever since then, the studio has come under fire for its lack of content updates between expansions, leading to a drop-off in players during each lull. While not directly addressing such criticisms, Hirshberg does briefly touch on why such content droughts have occurred in the past.
Beyond that, the incredible demand for Destiny content has somewhat outpaced our ability to deliver upon that demand, and going forward along with our partners at Bungie, have put together what we believe is a very smart approach that will allow us to deliver the steady stream of great content to keep our players engaged and keep our universe alive and growing in the wake of that sequel.
Assuming the past is any indication, expect to see Destiny 2 arrive on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 around the latter half of 2017. If the rumors are to be believed, we could well be seeing the sequel launch on PC, too.
