Bungie will end active development of destiny 2 with a final live service update on June 9, the studio announced in a post titled Every End Is A New Beginning.
The Monument Of Triumph update is described as a collection of love letters to players across activity types, and it reimagines the annual Moments of Triumph celebration to reflect nine years of content.
Bungie said the Director returns as the center of activities, with Portal activities still available through Director nodes, and the update adds a permanent Pantheon with a fresh slate of bosses.
Boss scheduling will roll out in stages, with the first slate available on June 9, a combined gauntlet on June 13, and encounter rotations beginning June 16, the studio wrote.
The studio is revising raid, dungeon, and destination weapons and armor to modern standards, adding full tier parity, set bonuses, new perks, and upgrade paths for crafted weapons across Tiers 1 through 5.
All exotic armor earned since The Edge Of Fate will receive automatic Tier 5 upgrades, Bungie said, and several exotic weapons will get tuning passes and catalysts.
Gameplay additions include new Aspects and abilities such as Solar Hunter Crackshot, Void Warlock Soul Siphon, Solar Titan Shieldburst, Void Hunter Phantom Surge, Strand Slicewire grenade, and an all classes Stasis Shatter grenade.
The update rebalances Portal difficulty, expands weapon and armor pools across ops categories, returns weekly featured raids and dungeons, and makes Sparrow Racing League a permanent mode.
Studio Future And Business Notes
Bungie said it will begin incubating new games as its focus moves beyond Destiny 2, writing that after The Final Shape it is time for Destiny to live beyond Destiny 2.
The studio committed to keeping Destiny 2 playable, and it will retain microtransactions, with Silver still available and Bright Dust earnable and expanded for cosmetics.
Bungie bundled all Destiny 2 content packs into a single purchase and plans permanent markdowns for individual packs, while seasonal events will be retired and some event rewards moved to Monument of Triumph engrams.
Reporting has also noted that Bungie reportedly plans layoffs and that the Destiny 2 development team did not yet have a new project greenlit, and the company has been sustaining its Marathon project after a reported drop in player numbers.
One article noted Sony acquired Bungie for $3.6 billion four years ago, and another cited a $765 million cumulative impairment loss reported by Sony across the last fiscal year, placing the studio transition in a wider business context.
