The new dungeons coming to Destiny 2 next year won't be included in the standard versions of The Witch Queen or the Year 5 season passes.
Bungie technically announced this when The Witch Queen's three editions – standard, deluxe, and deluxe plus Bungie's 30th anniversary December pack – were revealed, but some nuances slipped by in the product descriptions. The studio only recently put a spotlight on the way Year 5 dungeons will be sold.
"We’ve seen some debate around the new dungeon content and wanted to clarify how it will be delivered next year," community manager Cozmo23 said in a Reddit reply. "If you get the Digital Deluxe Edition of The Witch Queen you will receive the expansion, all four seasons for the next year, and the two dungeons. If you get the Standard Edition, you can still upgrade to the Deluxe Edition to get the dungeons later. We will also be offering a separate way for you to purchase the dungeons in the future, but they will not be included in the season passes."
In other words, if you just buy the basic versions of The Witch Queen and Year 5 season passes, you won't be able to play the new dungeons. These activities are currently exclusive to the deluxe edition of the expansion, which also comes with season passes for Year 5, making it more of a future-proof bundle. Players will be able to retroactively upgrade to the deluxe edition, and the Year 5 dungeons will eventually be sold separately as well.
During the big Witch Queen reveal, Bungie committed to more regular endgame content drops in Year 5, with a new raid, two dungeons, and a reprised raid arriving throughout the year. But the standard edition of The Witch Queen covers the campaign, a new raid, another six-player activity, Exotic gear, weapon crafting, and the first of the new glaives. This suggests that the first Year 5 dungeon will be decoupled from The Witch Queen and arrive sometime after it.
This breaks from the dungeon traditions established by Destiny 2's Forsaken and Shadowkeep expansions, which included the Shattered Throne and Pit of Heresy dungeons by default. The Forsaken Pack, which will be sold in place of the expansion beginning this December since a lot of its content is being shuffled into the Destiny Content Vault next year, also includes Shattered Throne access.
Destiny 2's third dungeon, Prophecy, was a freebie for all players. Another dungeon will be added this December as part of the aforementioned 30th anniversary pack, but this was always positioned as its own content bundle, so players weren't particularly surprised. The structure for Year 5 dungeons, meanwhile, has caught some players off-guard, as evidenced by the replies to Cozmo's explanation.
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