Destiny 2 Delays Witch Queen Expansion To 2022; Crossplay Coming This Year

What's that saying about "best-laid plans"? Last summer, Bungie laid out an ambitious schedule for future Destiny 2 releases, which would include the Beyond Light expansion later in 2020 and two new expansions, The Witch Queen and Lightfall, coming in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

Beyond Light received a minor delay, from its initially announced September 22 date to November 10. And today word came down that the expansions would also face delays, for an even longer period of time.

In today's blog post, Assistant Game Director Joe "Joegoroth" Blackburn broke the news that the launch of The Witch Queen would be delayed in 2022. The expansion represents "an important evolution in the ongoing story of Destiny 2" and the dev team wanted to be sure it had "enough time to build out this journey in the right way." In 2021, the game will receive several upgrades in terms of "keeping Destiny’s weapon and armor game fresh, refining our vision for PVP, implementing transmog, and adding Crossplay."

We'll learn more about The Witch Queen later this summer. In terms of 2021 news that Blackburn can talk about now, infusion caps will be removed in Season 14, ensuring that "any weapon or armor that can currently be infused to max Power will continue to be able to reach max Power permanently." Also in Season 14, the Power cap will only be raised by 10 instead of 50.

For PvP, several balance changes will be made over the next few seasons, the Trials of Osiris and Iron Banner modes will see their rewards structure and matchmaking paradigms overhauled, and the security team will be doubled in size, to better combat exploits.

The Vault of Glass returns from the Content Vault with Season 14, bringing with it a World First race that will require not only completion of the raid but a "curated list of challenging Triumphs." Ada-1 also sets up shop again in the Tower, transforming players' armor into Universal Ornaments by completing bounties, and Ikora Rey also comes back in Season 14, as she plays "a pivotal role in The Witch Queen."

As for that mention of crossplay earlier -- there will be "internal rollouts and alpha tests" in Season 14, with a full system for the "masses" planned for Season 15 in the fall, along with Legendary Stasis Energy and Power weapons. It's a broad and ambitious schedule Bungie has set for itself; let's hope it can keep to it this time around.