Say Destiny 2 I had a bad 2025 – that's putting it mildly, as is saying Mint Retrograde and Praxic Blade are fine. This year has been a disaster for Bungie's flagship game, even though Renegades showing signs of recovery.
2026 will be a make-or-break year for Bungie, a studio for which the entirety of 2025 was a turning point. Developer is under new management And Marathon is finally releasing. I'm just holding on Destiny 2 alive is not the bar to aim for in 2026, especially given how much work it took to get there. Edge of Fate.
I would really like to see some changes to the game in 2026. Destiny 2 must mend the frayed relationship between jaded players and the embattled developer, at the risk of causing apathy and alienating even more of its fans.
Less dependence on the Portal
The portal was Edge of Fatethe main way to interact with the game, and Destiny 2 fought for it. Anything that wasn't in the Portal was essentially useless for leveling up, and increasing your Strength was the only way to get better gear.
Portal could be a decent way to play Destiny 2, but that shouldn't be the only way to play the game. For a rich universe, grouping players into dozens of actions that appear in Netflix-style menus is the least interesting way to divide it up.
Renegades have already started to rectify this with Lawless Frontier, and it's certainly helped make our solar system adventures feel a lot more fresh than before.
More gear, destinations and activities, even if they are re-released.
RenegadesThe accolades highlight that there is life beyond the Portal, and next year will be a great opportunity to re-release loot from old raids and dungeons. Level-compatible weapons and armor will go a long way toward replayability, especially if they aren't caught in a tangled web of modifiers.
Of course, there is a lot of work to be done to update weapon perk sets and create armor set bonuses, and this may not be viable, but it will give us a reason to rework actions like Duality.
We would also like to see more research opportunities return next year. New territories are always welcome, but destinations and old seasonal events such as Abandoned Leviathan or Emptiness are ripe for this kind of adventure, especially in a non-portal format. And what is the Lawless Frontier if not timed, Star wars Emptiness?
More unlockable cosmetics
Surprisingly, Bungie has finally made it happen after years of fan requests. Nonary engrams in the “Ritual of Nine”, New Malpais ornament and a unique helmet in Call to Arms, Iridescent Engrams and Renegades“Dark Matter Crystals” are great reasons to keep logging in and playing, and we wish there were more of them.
Rainbow Engrams in particular are a simple and fun addition as they provide meaningful rewards and guarantee new items. It's surprising that Bright Engrams can drop duplicates at all, because the only thing more exciting than a purple sparrow you'll never use is a purple sparrow you'll never use but already have.
Less greed
The Eververse Store Already Exists Destiny 2 for centuries, but Edge of Fate it really felt like he was on the cutting edge. Season passes began giving 110 rewards for completing 150 levels, and it's hard to forget the unforgivable fiasco of the Gladius pack.
Bungie took an amazing armor set and removed it from the (free) PvP mode Iron Banner, only to sell it for premium currency as a new set, introducing a new Ancient Armor look for the mode instead. Fans wouldn't have been more aware of this questionable practice if they hadn't discovered (now deleted) concept art that showed the Gladius set with the Iron Banner logo. Bungie added a separate set to the game that could have become the Eververse, but by then the damage was clearly done.
And that greed is reflected not only in how Bungie manages its money, but also in how the studio seems to want to squeeze every drop of playtime out of its community. Bungie's easiest victories were when everything went wrong. Edge of Fatechanges such as mitigation blatant grindingremoving reset to Renegadesand stopping the operation of unstable cores. The relationship between player and developer isn't as bad as it was a few months ago, but it still requires a lot of work. A nice gesture would be to reintroduce Dawn bounties and provide Bright Dust caps more generously.
Creating goodwill and actually creating meaningful momentum
We know Bungie is not in the best shape. We I understand that he no longer has the workforce that he had beforeand it cannot provide the same quantity and quality of content. But rather than owning it, the studio seemed intent on pretending it wasn't happening.
His relationship with society Edge of Fate felt almost antagonistic, with predictably terrible changes and inaction that couldn't possibly be an accident. Player numbers continued to drop, reviews continued to pile up, and the community perceived the studio as helpless. Bungie can't afford to have that perception again next year.
Community Manager Dylan “Dmg_04” Gafner the infamous “we need to gain momentum and maintain it” post became almost a meme in the community in September, especially after the sluggish Ash & Iron update the following week. Bungie still hasn't achieved this: even with Renegades', this feeling may be closer to a faint, cautious optimism brought on by a fluke than a real push forward.
I hope that next year Bungie will reach out to more of the community that has been with her through her thick and thin. It's about removing obstacles, not creating new reasons to play something else. More communication also helps, especially if it is accompanied by timely responses that take into account player feedback. Yes, we fix problems Renegades that's good, but fixing them three months earlier when the game was losing players would have been even better.
Focusing on what's outside the game
I could write an entire grimoire about the gameplay changes I'd like to see. I'd love to see Exotics finally become a tier 5, a system that lets you choose armor sets like Festival of the Lost masks, a weapon customization pass, an economic overhaul, and much more forgiving restrictions on Bright Dust from orders next year. But the part where Bungie really has to put in the effort happens before we even launch the game. Destiny 2.
Now is not the time to create attrition or make players hesitate to open the game.. Now is not the time to leave the guards apathetically staring at the title screen and wondering if it's worth jumping through all the hoops like they did in Edge of Fate.
Instead, it's about giving players more incentive to keep coming back because they Wantnot because they feel that will have to. Of course, a lot of this depends on providing players with meaningful and quality content, but that's not all. Perhaps this means opening up the tap a little and offering a lot more freebies to new players, former players and veterans. Maybe it just means not making mistakes at crucial moments and not losing your grip. This way, we don't have to sigh out loud when someone asks if they should start playing.
