‘Destiny 2’ Release Moved Up Two Days, Beta And PC Launches Dated, Plus PS4 Exclusives Announced
Destiny 2 made an appearance at E3 2017 Monday night during the PlayStation press conference with a new story trailer focused on the new villain, Dominus Ghaul. However, it was the announcements around the trailer that might pique the interest of PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC gamers the most.
The release date has been shifted ahead slightly on consoles while the PC version of Destiny 2 finally gets a release date. Additionally, beta dates have been announced for all three platforms along with what exclusive content PS4 owners get.
New console release date and PC release date
The console release of Destiny 2 has been moved up by two days from the previously announced date to Wednesday, September 6. An exact reason for moving the date up was not revealed, but project lead Mark Noseworthy said it will allow the PS4 and Xbox One consoles to have a midnight launch during an appearance on the YouTube Live at E3 show with Geoff Keighley.
Meanwhile, the PC version of Destiny 2 will arrive over a month later. Bungie nailed down an October 24 release date to complete the work of porting all the content and the game is now available to pre-order from Blizzard’s Battle.net service.
Again, nothing official on why there is such a large gap between releases. However, this is Bungie’s first PC release since Halo 2 in 2004. The port is being assisted by High Moon Studios and creative director Luke Smith stated they are doing everything they can to make sure the in-game events line-up properly when the PC version launches.
Destiny 2 Beta dates
Save the dates for the Destiny 2 BETA starting July 18th. pic.twitter.com/il0R4GdDGc
— Bungie (@Bungie) June 13, 2017
Those interested in Destiny 2 will get a chance to play the beta version of the game well before it launches. PlayStation 4 pre-orders will get access first on July 18 followed by the Xbox One on July 19 with 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT start times for both days. The open beta for consoles will then follow on July 21 and the entire fun will end at 12 a.m. ET on July 24 (9 p.m. PT, July 23).
A PC beta is planned as well. Exact dates and times have not been nailed down yet, but it is expected to become available this August.
The beta build of Destiny 2 will be like what was available at the reveal event in May and at E3 this week, according to Smith and Noseworthy. The “Homecoming” opening mission will be available along with the Inverted Spire strike, and the new Crucible PVP mode. Players will be able to choose from six Guardian sub-classes including the new Hunter Arcstrider and Warlock Dawnblade.
There will be some extra content beyond this, but Bungie is keeping things quiet for now so players can have the thrill of discovery during the beta and with the eventual release.
PlayStation 4 exclusives
The Destiny 2 PlayStation 4 timed exclusives reared their head during the PlayStation E3 2017 event. The format is the same from Destiny 1 with an exclusive Strike, exotic weapon, gear, and Crucible map.
It remains to be seen if Bungie has solved the problem where exclusive content did not make its way into major activities like Strike playlists or vendors like Xur until after it was released to other platforms.
Here are the exclusives announced for PlayStation 4 as seen in the second video below:
- Lake of Shadows Strike
- Terra Concord Titan Armor
- Tesseract Trace IV Warlock Armor
- Icarus Drifter Hunter Armor
- City Apex Ship
- Borealis Exotic Sniper Rifle with Solar, Arc, and Void damage modes
- Retribution Crucible Map
No Xbox One X framerate increase
On a brief final note, Geoff Keighley asked Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy if the extra power of the Xbox One X will allow for an increased framerate like the PC. The two definitively answered the game is locked to 30 fps across all consoles. This implies it is to keep the game running at the same framerate between the standard Xbox One and the Xbox One X more than any performance limitations.
[Featured Image by Bungie / Activision]
