What happens after Final Shape? Bungie has gone on record in their Witch Queen reveal stream to say that while the Final Shape will be the end of the Light and Dark Saga, it is NOT the end of Destiny 2.
The game will continue on for years to come.
This gives some reason for concern surrounding the Final Shape itself.
The question on everyone’s mind right now is, Can the Final Shape properly deliver the conclusion to the Light and Dark Saga? Lightfall left us asking more questions than it did answer, so the Final Shape has a very tall order to fill.
But, one important thing we should take into account, is Final Shape will likely have a deluxe edition.
Now some of you are thinking yeah of course.
Why wouldn’t there be a Deluxe Edition? And you’re right.
But the potential problem this poses for Final Shape, is that it can’t end in some drastic conclusion with everything being answered.
Final Shape will need to ask enough questions to provide for 3 more seasons of content.
Now maybe this isn’t an issue for you, and maybe in Final Shape we win, and the rest of the Seasons are just cleaning up some bad dudes left behind in the aftermath.
But I suspect that after Final Shape, we’ll get set on a path to build up the next Villain that will be the focus of the first release in the New Saga beginning in 2025.
But this quote from Witch Queen’s Reveal Stream I find to be interesting.
Final Shape will not be an ending, but will be a Transformation moment.
This really gives me the impression that Final Shape will not be some epic conclusion, but instead, Final Shape’s events will set up the next expansion.
Now what does that expansion look like? Narratively, things are still pretty up in the air.
Something beyond our Solar System, possibly involved with The Nine? Xivu Arath focus? Finally an expansion directly about her? Some Villain of The Week type of expansion like a Beyond Light.
It’s impossible to know for sure where Destiny 2 is heading after Final Shape in terms of story, let me know some of your theories in the comments.
But as far as Gameplay is concerned and Content.
Things might be a little bit easier to predict.
So Final Shape drops, we play through the campaign, and assumedly, we can begin the Seasonal Content.
There is no reason to believe Bungie won’t continue it’s Seasonal Model considering how successful it is for them.
Which means we can likely expect 3 more seasons to follow full of weekly story missions, Seasonal Activities, some new exotics, dungeons and D1 raid reprisals.
But will that continue with the expansion after Final Shape? In my mind, 2 things could happen.
1, The 2025 expansion drops and does not include a Deluxe Edition with Seasons.
Destiny 2 becomes a once a year content drop game like D1, but Live Events like Trials and Iron Banner continue, as well as Holiday events.
I feel like this one is less likely because of how successful the FOMO Seasons are for their Business model.
Which leads me to believe.
Maybe we don’t get expansions after Final Shape, and we only see Seasonal Content.
Bungie has stated that they will no longer be Vaulting Expansion Content in Destiny 2 which means that after Final Shape, they probably can’t add too much to the game, like new Destinations or Permanent content like Strikes.
But Bungie have no problem Vaulting Seasonal Content as we know.
So if Destiny 2 continues past Final Shape and it’s Seasons, I could see this game becoming a nonstop Seasonal game.
Each New Season release, the Oldest Season is Vaulted, in a continuous cycle.
This is where I see Destiny 2’s future.
I think it’s a realistic future for the game too.
Bungie is not stopping development on Destiny 2 probably ever, but I’m sure there will be a chunk of Devs and resources shifted to other Projects after Final Shape.
Seasonal Content only, sounds like the most feasible future for Destiny 2 content.
Now besides the actual Content, what will the State of The Game look like in terms of Quality of Life.
2 Things I want to look at.
First, Leveling.
Power Leveling has been discussed for Several years now and the idea of it just being removed.
I don’t see this change coming throughout the Lightfall Year or Final Shape.
I think Bungie will want us to power level at least one final time.
But after Final Shape, I think we could see this system going away.
Especially if there’s a shift to seasonal content.
Progression might become strictly tied to Battle Pass Levels like most other Live Service games, and the idea of Leveling up gear and character levels just disappears.
Second, The New Player Experience.
The new player experience has been hotly discussed for years, mostly how it absolutely sucks.
Honestly, During Shadowkeep it was at it’s most friendly.
Red War, Curse of Osiris, and Warmind content was Free to Play, and served as a decent enough introduction to the World.
Then players could proceed with Forsaken and Shadowkeep content if they wanted.
BUT.
Then Beyond Light introduced Content Vaulting and the New Player experience has been awful ever since.
Even now with Lightfall many people, including Streamers have expressed their confusion on how to get into Destiny.
It’s clear that they would like to try, but the game itself does a good job at pushing them away.
So could we see a more fleshed out New Player New Light overhaul and update sometime after Final Shape.
Something that sets them up best to engage with Seasonal Content.
Is the goal even to encourage the new Players to purchase the expansions, or just to engage with Seasons and the Cash Shop, again, like most Live Service games.
Maybe Bungie wouldn’t even bother fleshing it out and just leave things as they are as New Players might not be the focus.
Just keeping Old Addicts around forever.
Bungie is working on so many new projects, that getting new players for those games is likely more important.
And this is the theory I find makes the most sense to me.
Keeping the old players who already spend a lot on Destiny is more profitable for them than getting new players.
The only case I see Bungie attempt to capture a new audience for Destiny, is with a Destiny 3.
Which so far seems off the table for awhile as Bungie has continuously kind of pushed back on the idea of a Destiny 3.
Although one thing does lead me to believe that a Destiny 3 may exist some day.
At that is, Sony buying Bungie.
Sony bought Bungie for more reasons than Destiny, and I’m sure they’re set to capitalize on merchandising and TV Shows or movies in the Destiny Universe, but maybe, down the road, 10 years even, Destiny 3 comes out.
It would certainly be a good backup move if Bungie’s other IP’s don’t succeed, Sony may want to push Bungie towards creating it.
Fun to speculate about, again there is no way to know the future of Destiny.
I think one thing is absolutely certain though.
Destiny 2 makes FAR too much money for Bungie to simply up and drop it.
I’m sure they will ride out Destiny 2, so long as there is a playerbase.
And I think we all know, that there will probably always be one.
Destiny fans are Diehard fans, and so long as there’s new Destiny content rolling in, they will be there to play it.
Something else to speculate on, is Bungie’s next game.
Codenamed Matter.
But maybe we’ll do that in another video.
But thank you guys for watching this one, leave a like if you enjoyed it.
Leave your thoughts on where Destiny 2 is headed after Final Shape in the comments.
Can the Final Shape properly deliver the conclusion to the Light and Dark Saga?
What happens after Final Shape? Bungie has gone on record in their Witch Queen reveal stream to say that while the Final Shape will be the end of the Light and Dark Saga, it is NOT the end of Destiny 2.
The game will continue on for years to come.
This gives some reason for concern surrounding the Final Shape itself.
The question on everyone’s mind right now is, Can the Final Shape properly deliver the conclusion to the Light and Dark Saga? Lightfall left us asking more questions than it did answer, so the Final Shape has a very tall order to fill.
But, one important thing we should take into account, is Final Shape will likely have a deluxe edition.
Now some of you are thinking yeah of course.
Why wouldn’t there be a Deluxe Edition? And you’re right.
But the potential problem this poses for Final Shape, is that it can’t end in some drastic conclusion with everything being answered.
Final Shape will need to ask enough questions to provide for 3 more seasons of content.
Now maybe this isn’t an issue for you, and maybe in Final Shape we win, and the rest of the Seasons are just cleaning up some bad dudes left behind in the aftermath.
But I suspect that after Final Shape, we’ll get set on a path to build up the next Villain that will be the focus of the first release in the New Saga beginning in 2025.
But this quote from Witch Queen’s Reveal Stream I find to be interesting.
Final Shape will not be an ending, but will be a Transformation moment.
This really gives me the impression that Final Shape will not be some epic conclusion, but instead, Final Shape’s events will set up the next expansion.
Now what does that expansion look like? Narratively, things are still pretty up in the air.
Something beyond our Solar System, possibly involved with The Nine? Xivu Arath focus? Finally an expansion directly about her? Some Villain of The Week type of expansion like a Beyond Light.
It’s impossible to know for sure where Destiny 2 is heading after Final Shape in terms of story, let me know some of your theories in the comments.
But as far as Gameplay is concerned and Content.
Things might be a little bit easier to predict.
So Final Shape drops, we play through the campaign, and assumedly, we can begin the Seasonal Content.
There is no reason to believe Bungie won’t continue it’s Seasonal Model considering how successful it is for them.
Which means we can likely expect 3 more seasons to follow full of weekly story missions, Seasonal Activities, some new exotics, dungeons and D1 raid reprisals.
But will that continue with the expansion after Final Shape? In my mind, 2 things could happen.
1, The 2025 expansion drops and does not include a Deluxe Edition with Seasons.
Destiny 2 becomes a once a year content drop game like D1, but Live Events like Trials and Iron Banner continue, as well as Holiday events.
I feel like this one is less likely because of how successful the FOMO Seasons are for their Business model.
Which leads me to believe.
Maybe we don’t get expansions after Final Shape, and we only see Seasonal Content.
Bungie has stated that they will no longer be Vaulting Expansion Content in Destiny 2 which means that after Final Shape, they probably can’t add too much to the game, like new Destinations or Permanent content like Strikes.
But Bungie have no problem Vaulting Seasonal Content as we know.
So if Destiny 2 continues past Final Shape and it’s Seasons, I could see this game becoming a nonstop Seasonal game.
Each New Season release, the Oldest Season is Vaulted, in a continuous cycle.
This is where I see Destiny 2’s future.
I think it’s a realistic future for the game too.
Bungie is not stopping development on Destiny 2 probably ever, but I’m sure there will be a chunk of Devs and resources shifted to other Projects after Final Shape.
Seasonal Content only, sounds like the most feasible future for Destiny 2 content.
Now besides the actual Content, what will the State of The Game look like in terms of Quality of Life.
2 Things I want to look at.
First, Leveling.
Power Leveling has been discussed for Several years now and the idea of it just being removed.
I don’t see this change coming throughout the Lightfall Year or Final Shape.
I think Bungie will want us to power level at least one final time.
But after Final Shape, I think we could see this system going away.
Especially if there’s a shift to seasonal content.
Progression might become strictly tied to Battle Pass Levels like most other Live Service games, and the idea of Leveling up gear and character levels just disappears.
Second, The New Player Experience.
The new player experience has been hotly discussed for years, mostly how it absolutely sucks.
Honestly, During Shadowkeep it was at it’s most friendly.
Red War, Curse of Osiris, and Warmind content was Free to Play, and served as a decent enough introduction to the World.
Then players could proceed with Forsaken and Shadowkeep content if they wanted.
BUT.
Then Beyond Light introduced Content Vaulting and the New Player experience has been awful ever since.
Even now with Lightfall many people, including Streamers have expressed their confusion on how to get into Destiny.
It’s clear that they would like to try, but the game itself does a good job at pushing them away.
So could we see a more fleshed out New Player New Light overhaul and update sometime after Final Shape.
Something that sets them up best to engage with Seasonal Content.
Is the goal even to encourage the new Players to purchase the expansions, or just to engage with Seasons and the Cash Shop, again, like most Live Service games.
Maybe Bungie wouldn’t even bother fleshing it out and just leave things as they are as New Players might not be the focus.
Just keeping Old Addicts around forever.
Bungie is working on so many new projects, that getting new players for those games is likely more important.
And this is the theory I find makes the most sense to me.
Keeping the old players who already spend a lot on Destiny is more profitable for them than getting new players.
The only case I see Bungie attempt to capture a new audience for Destiny, is with a Destiny 3.
Which so far seems off the table for awhile as Bungie has continuously kind of pushed back on the idea of a Destiny 3.
Although one thing does lead me to believe that a Destiny 3 may exist some day.
At that is, Sony buying Bungie.
Sony bought Bungie for more reasons than Destiny, and I’m sure they’re set to capitalize on merchandising and TV Shows or movies in the Destiny Universe, but maybe, down the road, 10 years even, Destiny 3 comes out.
It would certainly be a good backup move if Bungie’s other IP’s don’t succeed, Sony may want to push Bungie towards creating it.
Fun to speculate about, again there is no way to know the future of Destiny.
I think one thing is absolutely certain though.
Destiny 2 makes FAR too much money for Bungie to simply up and drop it.
I’m sure they will ride out Destiny 2, so long as there is a playerbase.
And I think we all know, that there will probably always be one.
Destiny fans are Diehard fans, and so long as there’s new Destiny content rolling in, they will be there to play it.
Something else to speculate on, is Bungie’s next game.
Codenamed Matter.
But maybe we’ll do that in another video.
But thank you guys for watching this one, leave a like if you enjoyed it.
Leave your thoughts on where Destiny 2 is headed after Final Shape in the comments.
I’ll see you all in the next one.
Related posts: