Bungie reveals Destiny 2 Steam date and cross save details

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Back in June, Bungie announced that Destiny 2 would be going free to play, getting cross save, and maybe biggest of all, moving from Battle.net to Steam. Today it detailed when that will happen, and what you'll need to do to get ready for it.

Destiny 2 will arrive on Steam on October 1, which is the same day that Shadowkeep and New Light (the free to play version) will launch. Existing players can sign up to transfer their accounts, which include all owned content—expansions, passes, Silver, the works—beginning on August 20. And you'll definitely want to do that (if you want to keep playing Destiny 2, anyway), because if you don't move it, it sounds like you'll lose it.

"Unfortunately, Destiny will no longer be available on Blizzard’s Battle.net after October 1," Bungie wrote in the PC Move update. "We hope you’ll follow us to our new home to continue your journey. It just wouldn’t be the same without you."

Assuming all goes well, the day after Destiny 2 account transfer signups begin—August 21—will also see the launch of cross save, which will enable players to use a single Destiny 2 account across all platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and when it launches, Stadia. There are some limitations, as detailed in the FAQ: If you already have separate accounts on different platforms, you'll select just one as your active account, and all previous in-game purchases will remain on the platform where they were made.

"These includes games or balances of Silver. Cross Save enables you to access the Guardians and Collections on one Active Account from wherever you play," Bungie explained in a separate post post. "The things that you acquire for your characters in the game are what move with you from one platform to another."

If you happen to be in multiple Destiny clans, you'll also have to give up all but one of those for your active account. Because this is cross save, not crossplay, you'll only be able to play with clanmates on the same platform, but clan objective progress will follow you between them.

And if you decide that this whole cross save business is for the birds, you can disable it and go back to your old characters on their individual platforms. If you do that, however, you'll have to wait 90 days to re-enable cross save, "to discourage activity like account recoveries by other players."

Bungie also laid out a rough schedule for pre-Shadowkeep events and info-drops in the regular This Week at Bungie update, and teased an "armor customization preview livestream" coming next week with an animated image revealing a pile of new mods coming in the Armor 2.0 system. The catch is that they're actually just icons for the mods, and that's where you come in: What do you think the new ones might be? Have a look below and give us your thoughts in the comments.

(Image credit: Bungie)

(Image credit: Bungie)

(Image credit: Bungie)

(Image credit: Bungie)

(Image credit: Bungie)
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Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

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