Bungie has responded to widespread concern from fans about Destiny 2 content locked off after the release of Curse of Osiris by announcing a raft of changes to activity requirements.
"With Curse of Osiris now live, it’s clear that we’ve made some mistakes with how we have handled content access," Bungie wrote in a blog called "Expansion and Season Access Update".
Fans had been upset that certain activities, exotic weapon quest steps and even PlayStation Trophies and Xbox Achievements were no longer accessible to people who hadn't forked out for the game's first expansion.
"The Destiny endgame features a variety of activities and playlists that we want to remain relevant to players as they grow more powerful. In Destiny 1, as your character grew more powerful throughout each expansion, some of our best content, like Vault of Glass, was left behind and lost its relevance for players. We wanted a better solution for Destiny 2, where all of our Endgame activities could stay relevant as each Expansion causes your Guardian to grow more and more powerful," the developer said, explaining its original goals.
That led to "Normal" and "Prestige" modes, with Prestige content always rising to meet the latest power cap.
"Additionally, the game provides Seasonal, time-limited PvP playlists – Trials of The Nine and Iron Banner. These activities and their rewards are meant to evolve each Season, and they utilize new maps, so they would require you to own the latest content. To play the latest season of Iron Banner or Trials, and earn the new rewards, players would need to own Curse of Osiris.
"We’ve heard from the community that both of these plans aren’t working. The Prestige Raid was a novel experience that players value, even if they don’t own Curse of Osiris, and it was a mistake to move that experience out of reach. Throughout the lifetime of the Destiny Franchise, Trials has always required that players owned the latest Expansion. However, for Destiny 2, Trials of The Nine launched as part of the main game, so it’s not right for us to remove access to it.
"To make matters worse, our team overlooked the fact that both of these mistakes disabled Trophies and Achievements for Destiny 2. This was an unacceptable lapse on our part, and we can understand the frustration it has created."
Having explained itself, the developer pledged to put them right as soon as possible, starting with a hotfix this week.
The hotfix will lower the Prestige Leviathan Raid requirements to 300 power again, dropping its rewards down again too, which will also solve the associated Achievement/Trophy issues and allow people to complete the Legend of Acrius exotic shotgun quest.
Meanwhile, Trials of the Nine and the regular Nightfall will only require Curse of Osiris when they feature Curse of Osiris maps. Iron Banner, Faction Rally and The Dawning will also be available to everyone again.
The one exception will be Prestige Nightfall, which will remain "a pinnacle activity" with a 330 power cap. That won't please everyone, but it is at least consistent with similar behaviour for the strike playlist in Destiny 1.
As a result of these changes, the Faction Rally event that was due to start this week has been postponed, but should return soon.
It remains to be seen whether these changes assuage the fears of Destiny 2 fans, many of whom also feel let down by the lack of variation in endgame content generally, but it does at least feel like it addresses the core concern.
