Destiny 2 Is Coming to Next-Gen Consoles

It's looking more and more like the next generation of consoles will kick off with lots of cross-gen titles. The trend started with older systems, sure, but it's theoretically much easier for developers to pull off today thanks to the similarities in architecture between current hardware and what's to come. It's also good news for dedicated players of live service games like Destiny 2, which Bungie says will be playable on next-gen hardware.

On today's Xbox Series X gameplay showcase stream, Microsoft revealed a list of partner developers promising support for the Xbox Series X. Bungie's on the roster, and a short while later Community Manager Dylan Gafner tweeted out a bit of a tease: "We're excited for our community to play Destiny 2 on next-gen platforms. More details to come." Bungie then followed up with a similar message from its main account.

Now, given that both the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 promise backward compatibility with most titles from their previous generation counterparts, popular titles like Destiny 2 are shoo-ins. Still, the dangled promise of "more details" suggests that whether or not Destiny 2 sees a proper next-gen re-release, there could be more in store than a mere compatibility guarantee.

At the very least, it'd be nice to see Destiny 2 on next-gen hardware push higher frame rates, display at better resolutions, and take advantage of faster loading speeds. Microsoft and Sony have both talked about backward compatibility solutions that should deliver such improvements for many current-gen games.

Diving into the specifics of Destiny 2, though, there are obvious ways that applying some extra elbow grease for a next-gen release could help it in the long run. The first Destiny was a cross-gen release, but its last major expansion ended up leaving the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 behind. It's a bit hard to imagine Bungie splitting its player base for Destiny 2 in a similar fashion, but there is precedent and Bungie has been transparent about the challenges of continually adding to the game as-is.

The partner developer list was just a small part of today's Xbox presentation—for more on what's coming to the Series X, check out Editor-in-Chief Kat Bailey's response to the showcase.