Destiny's Next Expansion Will Include An Entirely New Game Mode

One of the most controversial game releases of 2017 was the highly anticipated Destiny 2. The game ended up becoming a solid seller across home consoles and PC, but not without plenty of controversy regarding loot boxes and microtransactions. Well, Bungie is still intent on righting the wrongs, and attempting to do so with a new expansion pack that will add an entirely new game mode.

During an earning's call, it was revealed by Activision president and chief operating officer, Collister Johnson, that a new expansion was on the way, courtesy of a transcript from Seeking Alpha (via Polygon).

Collister explains that the new expansion will release this fall for Xbox One, PS4 and PC, and that it will bring an all new game mode to Destiny 2.

Quite naturally, almost everyone who learned about a new game mode coming to the first-person shooter instantly assumed that the new mode would be a Battle Royale mode. It's been the talk of the town for the last year and a half, and rightfully so given that games like Fortnite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds have racked up tens of millions of players within record time, with the latter game becoming the best selling game of the year across a single platform. One would assume that Activision and Bungie would want to jump in on the festivities associated with the burgeoning Battle Royale genre within the shooter market.

However, Polygon shoots down the rumors and expectations of a Battle Royale mode by reporting that two YouTubers had a chance to experience an early roll out of the mode. While the duo were restricted in what information could be given out to the general public, they did reveal that it would likely help reel back in some disappointed Destiny 2 fans by giving them something new to sink their teeth into this fall.

The new mode is expected to be a repeatable activity that will give gamers something sweet and savory to play to make up for the sparse endgame content available in Destiny 2.

Polygon also reports that the new mode will be showcased during the this year's E3 event in Los Angeles, California. Many expect that the mode will be revealed during Sony's E3 press conference in June.

I can see why Activision probably didn't want Bungie chasing down the Battle Royale mode, only because there are rumors that Activision and Treyarch will have something similar in Call of Duty this year when Black Ops 4 releases this fall. It could potentially cannibalize Treyarch's efforts to lure in the Battle Royale crowd, and having two first-person shooter games attempting to do the same thing could end up doing what happened when EA released Titanfall 2 and Battlefield 1 within weeks of one another in order to cannibalize sales of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.

After all of the community hiccups and scandals that plague Destiny 2 throughout the end of 2017 and the early half of 2018, we'll see if Bungie can correct course when the new mode is unveiled with the rest of the fall expansion during E3 next month.