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Destiny 2 Should 'Steal' Helldivers 2's New Sequel Strategy

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Destiny 2 catches a lot of flak, especially this year thanks to Bungie’s mass layoffs, but certain strengths of the live-service are undeniable. It’s perhaps the most well-crafted GaaS shooter on the market today, especially for those who prize elements like shooting mechanics and episodic storytelling, which are two arenas where Destiny 2 excels.

But the future of Destiny 2, and the Destiny IP as a whole, is a bit up in the air at the moment. There’s the aforementioned mass layoffs at Bungie to contend with, but then there’s also the matter of Destiny Rising, a promising mobile spin-off that could soak up much of the developer’s time and resources in the coming years. There’s also Sony’s acquisition of Bungie back in 2022, which has a good chance of shaping Destiny‘s long-term strategy. All of this is to say that it’s not clear if there will ever be a proper Destiny 3 one day, but as other live-services have proven, this doesn’t need to be a bad thing.

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Helldivers 2 Is “Growing” into Helldivers 3, and Destiny 2 Should Take the Same Route

Destiny’s Place in the Live-Service Market It Helped Create

Back when the first Destiny came on the scene in 2014, what gaming audiences now know as “live-service” games didn’t really exist. Indeed, Destiny itself was more of a traditional science-fiction shooter with some RPG elements, sharing a lot more DNA with the single-player campaigns of Halo than what Destiny 2 is known for now. It wasn’t until Destiny 2 came onto the scene a few years later that the series pivoted to a more typical modern-day live-service, eventually even becoming free-to-play and relying on expansions for continuous content.

But full-fledged sequels are a bit tricky in the realm of the live-service game. This was seen with Overwatch 2, which greatly struggled to justify its existence as a proper follow-up to the first wildly successful title. It was free-to-play, but even so, when a company tacks a “2” to the end of a title, audiences come to expect more than just a few minor updates. It didn’t help that many of Overwatch 2‘s changes were poorly received, but that’s besides the point.

Destiny 2 is in the same boat, in a sense. Players expect continuous evolution from their live-service games, so it can be hard to draw a firm line between a full sequel and a major expansion like The Final Shape. This makes Destiny 3 something of a tricky proposition, though it would symbolize a “next step” for the game and undoubtedly attract a new audience. A middle-ground between this traditional approach and the modern GaaS one may be in order.

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Why Helldivers 2’s Sequel Strategy Could Work Well for Destiny 2

According to a recent tweet from its creative director, Helldivers 2 will “grow” into Helldivers 3 over the years. How literal this statement is may be up for interpretation, but one could argue that that’s precisely what is being done with other major live-service titles. After all, something like Fortnite looks completely different in 2024 compared to launch day, and all these cumulative changes could certainly constitute the gulf between the first and second entries in a franchise. The only things missing are the actual change in title and the new download or physical release.

So perhaps Destiny 2 could blend these two strategies. At some point in the future, Bungie could roll out something like a “roadmap to Destiny 3,” implementing a number of transformative changes to the game over a certain period of time, culminating in an update that changes the title of the game to Destiny 3. This way, the series could have that symbolic moment of moving forward without actually disrupting its long-running in-game ecosystem.


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