As it teases Destiny 2 Year 11 with the codename Frontiers, Bungie talks what’s next for its MMO: “We want to get back to expanding our worlds and world-building”
Bungie has said for years that The Final Shape and the end of the Light and Darkness saga won’t be the end of Destiny 2, and the farther future of the MMO is slowly coming into focus following the recent tease of Year 11, codenamed Frontiers and set for 2025.
This interview originally appeared in Edge Magazine. For more fantastic in-depth interviews, features, reviews, and more delivered straight to your door or device, subscribe to Edge.
In an interview with Edge magazine as part of a big feature on the making of The Final Shape and what’s next for Destiny 2, assistant game director Robbie Stevens explains that “all of the content coming in Year 10 is the catalyst for what happens next in Destiny 2. And some of those threads will carry forward into the future.
“But the thing I really want to reinforce here is that we’re moving outside of the linear storytelling – internally we call it ‘TV-show storytelling’ – of Destiny 2 to these more standalone experiences and Episodes that are easier to jump into, easier to engage in. So you don’t have to have knowledge of everything that happened right beforehand in order to enjoy that story and enjoy that experience.”
“A lot of that thinking about Year 11, and how we start really getting into the next journey here after these Episodes, we’re going to be leaning on that thinking as well,” he continues. “Because we’ve been doing this linear thing for a while now, and we want to get back to expanding our worlds and world-building, expanding the universe of Destiny in general. And I think that’s as much as I should probably say about it.”
Elsewhere, Stevens reiterates the approach to Year 10 as build-up for what’s to come. Bungie has “big plans” for Year 11, and “ultimately, that will come.” But for the year ahead, he says, “we have a handful of characters and moments that we thought, ‘Hey, let’s take the opportunity here: let’s go back to some existing locations across Sol, and let’s tie up some of these character stories and also open up some doors.'”