Bungie has decided to delay the next chapter of Destiny 2, known as the Witch Queen expansion, to early 2022. The developer is making sweeping changes to the game in the meantime, which include bringing crossplay to the game.
Originally scheduled for a 2021 release, The Witch Queen was set to be the sci-fi shooter’s big, annual expansion. Bungie says it will now release in the first half of 2022. The developer cited several reasons for the date shift, including the game’s scale, the team’s commitment to fixing fundamental problems and, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic.
“With COVID-19 keeping us away from the office, and the large amount of work on our plates,” says Bungie, “we needed to move the date in order to make sure that both this year’s updates and The Witch Queen were both delivered at the quality we strive for, and on a schedule that made sense for everyone involved. ”
Bungie says it’s adding a new, unannounced chapter to the game, which will come out after 2022’s Lightfall expansion. The mysterious new update will close out the “first saga of Destiny.”
The blog post outlines Bungie’s plans for the rest of the year. Bungie confirmed that crossplay is officially coming this fall. Bungie plans to test the feature throughout season 14 and roll it out to the masses in season 15. Bungie says it will not match PC and console players together in the game’s PvP mode.
Fans will also be happy to learn that the Vault of Glass raid is officially returning to the game in season 14, and that Bungie is doing away with Beyond Light‘s controversial infusion cap system. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, so make sure to check out Bungie’s full blog post for all the details.