The upcoming sequel to Destiny has been delayed from its projected release date in September, 2016, according to a report from Kotaku Friday.
Though Activision has never officially announced a Destiny sequel or its release date, documents outlining the publisher’s 10-year plan for the franchise were released during a 2012 lawsuit between Activision and former Infinity Ward developers. According to that plan, Bungie would deliver four Destiny games biennially, and an expansion pack in year between releases. Destiny was released in 2014, Destiny: The Taken King was released in 2015. “Destiny 2” should be released in 2016.
This should not come as a surprise to Destiny fans: As the report points out, the game’s development and planning has been plagued by design overhauls that have drastically changed the game’s business model and content. According to another report from Kotaku last year, the developer re-wrote the game’s narrative during the summer of 2013, less than a year before the game shipped.
On the other hand, Bungie has warned fans that the timeline fans they’ve held on to since 2012 does not reflect their development cycle. In September, 2015, Bungie community manager Eric Osborne said the ten-year plan was strictly a legal document that was not directly applied to the game’s development cycle.
“It has nothing to do with the development of the game proper, Osborne told Edge. “To think that somehow, before Destiny had shipped, we had some ten-year plan written down somewhere? It’s comical.”
According to Eurogamer, Bungie has ditched the 2016 DLC release calendar for Destiny in order to free up more resources to work on the new game.
Meanwhile, Bungie announced plans to launch a Valentine’s Day-themed event in Destiny next month called “Crimson Days” Thursday on Reddit. Bungie said it would announce a “larger game update,” which will come out some time “after February.”
It’s unclear whether or not Destiny 2 will still be released in 2016.
