A Destiny 2 free to play version called New Light will be released this fall, Bungie announced today. Destiny 2: New Light will include the base game with the Cabal Red War campaign as well as the Leviathan raids, plus all content from the Curse of Osiris and Warmind DLCs. It will also come with Gambit, all the Strikes and Crucible maps, and access to all destinations, including The Dreaming City, Tangled Shore from Forsaken, and the new moon destination coming in Destiny 2 Shadowkeep.
"What if we create a free entry point for the game and a brand-new-ish way for players to enter the universe?" director Luke Smith said on Bungie's reveal stream. "But then there's still this problem of 'Gosh, I've got like 40 hours of campaign to play, I've got these campaigns which are cool, but that's not the part of the game that matters for hardcore reason. The answer to this problem is New Light. Once you enter New Light, within 10 or 15 minutes, you arrive at the part of the game that matters to you and your friends. This is about crushing the barriers between friends."
Naturally, New Light doesn't come with everything. For example, while players will be able to explore The Dreaming City and participate in publicly available activities, New Light players will need to purchase Forsaken to play its story missions, the Last Wish raid, the Shattered Throne Dungeon, and so on. This will also apply to annual pass content like Gambit Prime, the Black Armory Forges, and Penumbra's Menagerie. It sounds like a nice compromise, and New Light should give new players a lot to sample.
Interestingly, Destiny 2: New Light will open with a custom-made mission based on the original Destiny. It's essentially a remaster of the original Cosmodrome intro, complete with your first resurrection and ship. However, as Bungie was quick to clarify, the Destiny throwbacks end there; New Light isn't a remaster of the original Destiny, nor does it contain any other returning activities. Once you clear the intro mission, you'll head to the Tower where you can immediately start playing with friends and exploring Destiny 2's universe.
"Once you get into the Tower, you can start playing Strikes, Crucible, and Gambit immediately," design lead Raylene Deck explained on stream. "As for the destinations, we have a system that we're building that will unlock destinations over time, but it's not going to be very long. One of our goals is that the world isn't overwhelming. We're not trying to block content, we're trying to ease players into our world."
With quick access in mind, New Light will also start players at 750 Power. Deck said the exact level is still being determined, but the Destiny 2 free to play version will give players a big enough Power level boost that they can immediately dive into the newest batch of content.
"New Light is tailored toward new players but all players can experience it," Deck said. "It's exciting because it's not a trial, it's not an expansion, it's not a different part of the game, it just is the game."
"It's the full breadth of content," production director Kekoa Lee-Creel added. "You get to do Strikes, you get to free-roam, you get to look for Lost Sectors, you get access to all that content for free. We're happy to have people get to experience that content for the first time."
Destiny 2: New Light will launch this September alongside Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, and will be available for free on all platforms.
Oh, did I mention we're also getting a Destiny 2 Google Stadia version which comes with everything in the game?!
