Today developer Bungie held a stream to discuss the future of Destiny 2, its long-running loot shooter, following the split from publisher Activision earlier this year. The stream introduced the new Destiny 2 Shadowkeep expansion, which will be the first expansion to release for the game since the Activision split, and will also be standalone, in that you don’t need the other expansions to play it. Destiny 2: New Light will be a free-to-play catch-up version of the game to allow new players to get into Shadowkeep and Destiny 2 quickly. And then, of course, there’s the Destiny 2 Steam release.
In rather a big bombshell, Bungie revealed that Destiny 2 on PC would be coming to Steam, and anyone playing on the current Battle.net version would be able to move their account over to Steam free of charge. However, will players have to do this? Won’t it split the community? When is the Destiny 2 Steam release date? What’s this got to do with Shadowkeep and New Light? We’ve got the answers below.
What is the Destiny 2 Steam release date?
While Bungie didn’t explicitly say this on the stream, it did say that the Shadowkeep expansion would be coming to Steam, and also gave a release date for that expansion on all platforms. The team has now confirmed that the Destiny 2 Steam version release date will fall on the same day that Shadowkeep comes out, which is September 17. You’ll have to migrate your account over by then.
Can I get the Destiny 2 Shadowkeep expansion on Battle.net?
The new Destiny 2 Shadowkeep expansion is coming in September to all platforms, and Destiny 2 owners on PC are undoubtedly eager to get hold of it. It will be the game’s first “standalone” expansion, meaning that anyone can buy it and play it without purchasing the Destiny 2 base pack or any of the other expansions first.
It’s certainly a big deal, which makes it all the more shocking that it will not be available on Battle.net, the traditional home of Destiny 2 on PC for the past two years. Shadowkeep on PC will launch exclusively on Steam. So if Shadowkeep isn’t coming to Battle.net, will all Destiny 2 PC players who want to get it have to play the Steam version? Well, we’ve got further news on that.
Will Destiny 2 on Battle.net still be running?
Of course Destiny 2 has been running on PC exclusively via Activision Blizzard’s Battle.net client since it came out in September 2017, so there’s probably quite a lot of players who are comfortable playing it that way, and don’t want to go to Steam. But if the new Shadowkeep expansion is only going to be available to Destiny 2 PC owners via Steam, what about Battle.net Destiny 2 players? What’s going to happen to the current Battle.net?
Hold on to your helmets, because this announcement comes with the unusual and shocking news that the Battle.net version of Destiny 2 will actually be shutting down. Everyone who wants to carry on playing Destiny 2 on PC will have to migrate their account from Battle.net to Steam, and then only play through Steam. We do not yet know if the launch of the Destiny 2 Steam version on September 17 and the closure of the Battle.net version will happen at the same time, or whether Bungie and Activision will give players time to move their accounts across first. We assume the latter will be the case, though.
How do I move my Destiny 2 account to Steam from Battle.net?
This is a rather a big (and unusual) deal, as we’ve heard of games being made available on new digital storefronts before, but never at the cost of the old one. Consequently Bungie want to make the transition from Battle.net to Steam as easy and seamless as possible, and will give full details on the game’s homepage on Bungie.net before it happens. Players will be able to move all details of their Destiny 2 accounts over to Steam, including all current characters, gear, progress, DLC, expansions etc, and both the process and the Steam version of the game will be totally free. As for exactly how it will happen, we don’t know yet, but it’ll probably be straightforward, and Bungie will let us know before September.
Will the free-to-play Destiny 2: New Light come to Steam?
The other big announcement of the Destiny 2 stream was the reveal of Destiny 2: New Light, a free-to-play version of the game that will include all of Destiny 2’s Year 1 content, such as the base game, Gambit mode, and the Curse of Osiris and Warmind expansions. It will release at the same time as the Shadowkeep expansion, and is meant to be a way for new players to catch up quickly. As such, it will definitely be coming to Steam, and will probably be the main base version of the game on Valve’s platform.
Why is Destiny 2 moving to Steam?
It’s pretty unprecedented, or at least rare, that the announcement of a new storefront would require everyone who owns the old version on a different client to sign up for the new one. But here we are: Destiny 2 is coming to Steam, the Battle.net version will end, and all players will have to move over. So why’s it happening? Ignoring that Steam is vastly more popular than Battle.net, it’s probably entirely down to the Activision-Bungie split. Activision Blizzard owns and runs Battle.net exclusively for its own games, so now that Destiny 2 isn’t an Activision game, it’s understandable that Activision no longer wants to support it.
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