Last month, Destiny 2 developer Bungie announced layoffs that saw the elimination of 220 roles at the company, or roughly 17% of the company's workforce. The layoffs sent shockwaves throughout the industry, especially considering the success of The Final Shape expansion.
Released this past June, The Final Shape brought Destiny's first major storyline, The Light and Darkness Saga, to its conclustion. It was a fantastic end to the decade-long narrative, but no one really knew where the game's story would go from here.
In a new blog post celebrating Destiny's 10-year anniversary, Bungie not only celebrated the game's past but teased what sounded like a promising future.
"We’re plotting our course to the stars through Codename: Frontiers. We closed a door with The Final Shape, but we are opening a new one, a weird one, an exciting one, that takes Destiny to places it has never been before," Bungie teased.
Codename: Frontiers is how Bugnie is describing the major innovations coming to Destiny over the next few years, beginning with the next expansion, Codename: Apollo. This future includes major changes to Destiny's annual model. Moving forward, fans can expect two Expansions per year along with four major updates of free content every year.
"Expansions have started to feel too formulaic and are over too quickly with little replay value," admitted Destiny 2 game director Tyson Green. "Seasons and Episodes keep getting bigger but can still feel like you are just going through the motions."
Green acknowledged that annual Expansions "dominate all our development effort," something that was cited as one of the reasons for the layoffs. Beginning in 2025, Bungie will now deliver two medium-sized expansions, one every six months, instead of one big Expansion. Tyson explained:
Each of these will depart from the one-shot campaign structure we’ve been using essentially unchanged since Shadowkeep, and each will be an opportunity to explore exciting new formats instead.
We are excited to try new things that challenge your idea of what a Destiny experience can be. We are actively prototyping non-linear campaigns, exploration experiences similar to the Dreaming City or Metroidvanias, and even more unusual formats like roguelikes or survival shooters. Each expansion will present a new opportunity to try something different.
Departing from one-shot campaigns doesn’t mean we are turning away from great story telling. Going forward, we want to return the mystery and wonder that was woven into the fabric of early Destiny, when the story felt ripe with possibilities and an epic sense of exploration and discovery. Great stories are as important as ever in our creative vision and Alison will touch more on that below.
Destiny 2's Seasonal model is also changing, moving from three Episodes to four Major Updates per year (one every three months). Bungie outlined the changes:
Each Expansion will launch alongside a Major Update at the start of a Season, and then a second Major Update will follow three months later to refresh the Core Game with new and reprised content including:
- Activities: Strikes, Exotic missions, or entirely new modes like Onslaught
- Rewards: weapons, armor, Artifact Mods, Exotics, and more
- Combat meta and balance updates
The big Seasonal resets will still happen, but now twice a year, alongside the Expansions.
Bungie released a roadmap for Destiny 2, highlighting the four major updates coming through Spring 2026. The first major expansion, Codename: Apollo, will kick off Destiny's new saga.
"You’ll see teases of it in the later two Episodes, and then fully kick off with Codename: Apollo," said Destiny 2 narrative director Alison Luhrs. "This next saga is also based around a core theme, much like Light and Darkness did. It will introduce plenty of new characters, factions, twists, and more. There’s a lot more here we will say eventually, but we don’t want to spoil the journey for you. This will be a multiyear journey, one we can’t wait to take you on."
While details for Codename: Apollo are being kept under wraps, Bungie did confirm it is a nonlinear character-driven adventure. Rather than experiencing a linear story that goes from A to B to C to D, Codename: Apollo "takes place over dozens of threads you’ll explore and discover."
Luhrs explained:
So, when you land on our brand new location, the story starts at A, and then you can choose if you want to explore C first, or try and get into B, or maybe investigate D.
And the options you didn’t choose? Don’t worry, those other options are still open for you to go back and play through. You’ll need to!
Because the more you play and discover, the more the story progresses, so experiencing a certain number of threads opens up the next part of the story. The order in which you explore will be something you choose, but we have built Codename: Apollo in a way the story always makes sense and flows from beginning to middle to end. There’s no time gating, no waiting for the next drop, Codename: Apollo’s story unfolds based on player progression.
Destiny is at its best when it's mysterious, weird, and not afraid to try new things. This shift to nonlinear stories isn’t something we’re locking ourselves into, but it is the structure that fits Codename: Apollo best. The narrative structure of the releases that follow will be quite different, a structure to suit that game’s experience, and we want to continue to innovate with each expansion across both gameplay and narrative.
Bungie seems keen on delivering a multiyear arc described as a "constellation of stories united by a single theme." We don't yet know what this theme is, but Bungie did conclude with this one last teaser:
Apollo ends with the narrative gasoline that will propel us into the next few years with a clear theme, goal, and a destination that won’t come at you as a straight line but will be well-worth the trip. It’ll reward you, it’ll surprise you, and it’ll take us places Destiny has never seen before.
See you when the time is right...
Are you excited for these changes to Destiny 2?