Destiny developer Bungie today confirmed a bunch of details about the sequel that’s currently in development, including the fact that it’s expanding beyond consoles to launch on PC — exclusively via Blizzard’s online platform.
That makes some sense given that Bungie is in the middle of a ten-year publishing contract with Activision Blizzard, and this sort of distribution strategy allows the company to avoid sharing revenue with platforms like Steam. Still, it’s a notable expansion of Blizzard’s online platform (long known as Battle.net, though the company is trying to phase that name out) beyond Blizzard games.
When Destiny 2 debuts on PC (the actual date is yet unclear) Bungie expects to be handling the actual game servers, while Blizzard plans to extend the extant Battle.net feature set to encompass it — that includes Blizzard’s established payment system, game broadcasting tech, and friend lists. However, the company says it has no plans to sell anything other than Activision or Blizzard games via Battle.net for the foreseeable future.
“Aside from potentially evaluating needs or opportunities for future Activision games, we don’t have any short- or long-term plans to support third-party games with Battle.net,” reads an excerpt of a Blizzard FAQ about the deal. “It’s important to us to maintain our quality standards for any experience or service we’re putting in front of our players, which represents a big investment of time and effort on our part, so this is not something we’re jumping into lightly.”
While the PC release date is unclear, Destiny 2 is expected to launch across PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on September 8th. Bungie debuted the original game in 2014, and it has since grown to be a multi-studio franchise.