Destiny 3: Why it probably won't happen - Player Assist

Anyone who knows me is well aware that I’m a fan of Destiny 2. I’ve devoted many articles on this website to it. I’ve sunk thousands of hours into it. For this reason, some people — almost exclusively non-Destiny 2 players — ask me when I think Destiny 3 will come out. For the past few years, my answer has always been the same: never. I do not think such a game will ever exist.

It’s not that I wouldn’t play it, or that I don’t want it necessarily. If Bungie went through the arduous process of rebuilding everything inside a less unwieldy engine and called it Destiny 3, I’d be totally on board. I’d download it and jump in on day one. But at this point, such a move doesn’t really make sense for the game. There are way more arrows pointing to “no” than “yes.”

Here’s why I believe that to be true.

Bungie is no longer tied to the Activision deal

One could argue that the only reason Destiny 2 exists is because of Activision. That publisher, almost as much as any publisher that isn’t EA, makes its bank on follow-up releases to successful franchises.

Yes, there is Call of Duty: Warzone that bucks this trend a little bit. But that game exists in a vacuum. You don’t see one Call of Duty experience constantly getting updated every year with a new campaign. Activision is all about selling you a new $60 (or now, $70) experience.

There’s a chance we’d still be on an updated version of the original Destiny were it not for the Activision deal. Now that Bungie is free of that, the studio is likely not in a hurry to dump its Destiny 2 players just to put out a new version and call it Destiny 3.

Destiny 2 is now a free-to-play game

If there was some financial motivation for Bungie to create a new mainline Destiny product, it went out the window the second Destiny 2 went free-to-play. Now, instead of charging players $60 or $70 for a new game, Bungie would charge them zero dollars. What’s the point?

To my knowledge, I’m not sure there’s been another free-to-play game that’s decided to can its current version in favor of a whole new release. I don’t see Destiny 2 being the first just to make room for a Destiny 3. If anything, I think Bungie will drop the “2” at some point and simply make the game “Destiny” again.

Someone should put that on a trucker hat. “Make Destiny 2 Destiny again.” MD2DA.

There are still multiple Destiny 2 expansions in the works

If we ever did get a Destiny 3, it would have to be several years out. We already know the name of Destiny 2’s next expansion: The Witch Queen. And guess what? We know of the two after that, too. There’s Lightfall and then there’s The Final Shape. And don’t be surprised if that “Final Shape” isn’t so final. Yes, it is the end of the Light and Darkness Saga. But in June of 2022, don’t be surprised if we hear a bit more about what comes next.

At this stage, even Bungie seems to be admitting that Destiny 2 is going to be the one last version of Destiny that exists. A third release may have been in the cards were it not for all those other aforementioned changes. But since we live in a different world here in 2022 than we did in 2017, Destiny 2 — at least as we know it now — will probably be it until Bungie goes back and reboots the whole darn thing as “Destiny.”