The Destiny studio reveals their plans for the road after Lightfall.
Three sci-fi armored people standing inside a glowing ring. One is driving a beam of light into the ground. One is holding a bow. One is holding a purple assault rifle-looking weapon. There is a side profile of a blonde haired woman looming large in the background. A number of ships are flying in the sky area.

The release of Destiny 2: Lightfall is just around the corner. With release set for February 28, that doesn't leave Bungie with much time to shake things up too much prior to release. After Lightfall though, that's another story entirely.

Today, the Destiny developer shared some of their major goals and changes to the familiar Destiny formula that they hope to achieve in the future. In a very lengthy writeup that went live earlier today on Bungie.net, the studio admits that the stream of content released for Destiny 2 has made the game "feel too predictable."

But amid this quality and consistency, Destiny 2 can sometimes feel too predictable. While some consistency is necessary for us to be able to regularly update the game and prevent players from having to relearn Destiny every three months, as well as to maintain our team health and sustainability, it is clear that too much predictability has created a lack of surprise and delight by the time some of our major game updates get into your hands.

Aside from predictability, we sometimes still hear a refrain that has been sung since the beginning of our journey: “There’s just not enough to do.” While there is plenty happening at the start of an expansion or seasonal drop, by the end of a season we often see our most engaged players lamenting that they have run out of things to sink their teeth into.​
To try to counter these issues, Bungie listed four major goals that they hope to achieve moving forward:
  • Expand players’ imaginations
  • Bring challenge back to Destiny
  • Enrich our content
  • Connect our Guardians
​Destiny 2: Lightfall launches alongside the Season of Defiance. This particular season of content is already making some significant strides to simplify a lot of the game's progression systems. There will be fewer currencies and materials to juggle, as a start. Other plans for Destiny include expanding to other fantasy themes. There was already content focusing on space pirates and cowboys, but there is not shortage of areas that can be explored in a fantasy setting.

Tuning challenging content is another area that Bungie wants to put more focus on. They hope to find a good balance between challenging encounters that don't simply turn enemies into bullet sponges. Old content will also get looked at, with Bungie hoping to improve or expand the existing content already in the game so that players always feel like there is something to do after most of the seasonal content is finished.

Finally, Bungie will introduce new matchmaking tools that will help players find teams faster than before. Matchmaking was already in the game for some PvE content and for PvP. It will soon expand to include content that wasn't traditionally matchmade in the past thanks to the new Fireteam Finder.

The last piece of our social puzzle for the year is our biggest: Fireteam Finder. Initially, we hoped to get our take on a first-class in-game Looking for Group tool in players’ hands this summer with Season 22, alongside our next reprised raid, making a perfect pairing for new raiders. But as our plans became more solidified, we realized that the features needed to create a truly top-notch LFG experience were going to require a bit more time. So, while that reprised raid is still coming out this summer, we’re pushing Fireteam Finder out to our final Season of the year alongside a brand-new dungeon.

We think that a truly first-class LFG system won’t be perfect until we can see how our players use it, but we want to make sure that the initial launch still has a ton of features that will allow players to find a fireteam inside of Destiny. This means a Fireteam Finder that you can queue up for from anywhere in the game. The ability to tag your posts with keywords to describe the kind of group you’re running and the kind of people you’re looking to recruit. The option to create groups where folks can join automatically, allowing you to get right into the action. And the power to create groups where you as a leader can approve or deny each person trying to join up, giving you tight control over the kind of group you’re putting together.​
Sadly, in all the word said today, not a single word was uttered about Gambit. This mode hasn't seen any new maps or content for quite some time now. As for Strikes, both Inverted Spire and Exodus Crash will be accessible only from the game director until they're reworked. Lake of Shadows and Arms Dealer are being reworked and updated first.

Bungie noted that after Season 20, Season of Defiance, will come Season of the Deep.