Destiny 2 will become free-to-play later this year, fully cross-platform ~ USA Latest Games

At least one new baddie in Destiny 2: Shadowkeep. [credit: Bungie ]

Shortly after Google's Stadia reveal presentation on Thursday, the Destiny 2 handlers at Bungie kicked off their own whopper of a livestream. While the broadcast revolved around the game's upcoming paid expansion—Shadowkeep, out September 17—it arguably made a bigger splash with a free-to-play and cross-play announcement.

Once Shadowkeep goes live this September on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows 10, and Google Stadia, Destiny 2's base version will become wholly free to download, boot, and play on Bungie's live servers. The "New Light" version may be better described as "Destiny 2 Year One," which includes the overworld and campaign content from the 2016 SKU and the game's first pair of paid expansions, Warmind and Curse of Osiris.

From there, the rest of the game's existing and future content—meaning, full expansion packs and paid "season" content bumps—will be sold "a la carte" without requiring other purchases. "None of the existing content is required to access Shadowkeep," one Bungie staffer said when explaining this retail model. "All expansions going forward will be simple and a la carte." (The staffers also admitted that "pre-purchasing content wasn't as cool as it could be," referring specifically to the "season" content bumps being sold before their contents were advertised.)

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