The Next Chapter of Destiny Includes Cross-Saving, a Free-To-Play Mode and More

Alright, so it looks like a lot of those Destiny leaks checked out.

In a livestream held by Bungie Thursday, development leads Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy detailed the future of the MMO shooter (a descriptor they have finally adopted), and a lot is going to change when the forthcoming Shadowkeep expansion drops.

During the presentation, Smith and Noseworthy outlined three of their goalposts for Destiny going forward: To finally embrace the MMO aspects of the game, make the game feel more like a “single evolving world” and the ability to “play it anywhere.”

While the whole unveiling was pretty dense with information, here’s a breakdown of what we learned during the Destiny event:

– The newest expansion, Shadowkeep, is coming out on Sept. 17 and will bring Destiny players back to the moon (a fan-favorite from the first game) for a ton of new content, including a brand-new story.

– Partaking in the Shadowkeep expansion will not require a purchase of the previous expansions, Forsaken, Warmind or Curse of Osiris.

– Future seasons will be purchasable on an a la carte basis, meaning you can wait until new seasons debut instead of dropping the money on an annual pass.

– Big new features are coming to the game, including cross-saving on all platforms—that includes PlayStation and, yes, Google Stadia when it releases.

– The PC version of Destiny will also be coming to Steam, moving from Battle.net (free of charge for players who’ve already purchased on Blizzard’s launcher).

– Exclusive content is no more—when new maps, weapons and strikes release, they will release on all platforms at once.

– And another big one: Destiny 2: New Light will also be available in September. This free-to-play version of the game includes the base version of Destiny 2, as well as all the other year-one content that came with it (Warmind and Curse of Osiris).

Of course, much of that information made the rounds just a few hours before developer Bungie’s planned livestream today, as Bungie prepared to unveil their post-Activision plans.

In an embargo-breaking article posted by Engadget, it was revealed that Destiny 2 would be going free-to-play with its last big expansion, Forsaken, included in the package, and getting a cross-save feature (which had been in high demand by Destiny players), as well as a release on the Stadia platform. It also revealed that Bungie will be getting out of its exclusivity deal with Sony, ending its gated content on other gaming platforms.

The jump to a free-to-play business model will be a radical change to Bungie’s popular shared-world online shooter, joining the ranks of games like Fortnite, Dauntless and Apex Legends.