Destiny 2's September expansion is called Forsaken, full reveal coming tomorrow (Updated)

Update: A fresh tease on Twitter has revealed that the next Destiny 2 expansion will be called Forsaken.

The clip shows Cayde-6 and another Hunter, presumably the player but possibly not, landing on the Reef, which we previously speculated will be the main setting for the expansion. It's also the location of the Prison of Elders, a sort of maximum security joint for aliens that served as an arena for a wave-based mode (that apparently wasn't great) in the House of Wolves DLC for the original Destiny. There's also a reference to Cayde-6 "filling the Prison of Elders" in this Warmind "narrative preview," and that's probably not a coincidence. Our money would be on the prison being the destination for the next raid.

The logo at the top of the video is almost certainly Fallen (it matches the style), and it's their turn, too: Curse of Osiris focused on the Vex, while Warmind is all about the Hive. (The Taken had their shot in The Taken King DLC for Destiny, and the Cabal were the headliners in the Destiny 2 base game.) Put it all together and it looks very much like a throwdown with the Fallen is in the cards.

All will be revealed tomorrow, June 5, during the Destiny 2 Year 2 livestream, at 9 am PT/12 pm ET. 

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September will be a big month for Destiny 2, as it will see the beginning of Year 2, with new features including Gear Collections, Records, weapon slot changes and randomization, new modes, and more—"Yet to be revealed," as the recent development roadmap update put it. Today Bungie announced that the promised reveal will take place next week, during a livestream set for 9 am PT/12 pm ET on June 5. 

Based on the previous roll-out of expansions for Destiny 1—which saw two minor DLC drops followed by a big one, The Taken King, a year after the main game—the obvious expectation is that this fall will see the launch of an equivalent, larger expansion. Which is also what Bungie's contract with Activision points to.

"We have some big ideas for how we’re going to transform your Guardian lifestyle and reinforce your hobby as an interplanetary hero," Bungie community manager David "Deej" Dague said. "We’ll tell you all about it, and we’ll do it live!"  

The stream will feature members of the development team including game director Steve Cotton and project lead Scott Taylor. "Community feedback" will be addressed, and there will also apparently be some surprise announcements: Bungie will "unveil some other things you haven't even been looking forward to," Deej wrote. "This will be the beginning of a conversation that will last all summer long." 

No details were revealed, but the Year 2 reveal image does contain a hint. The background appears to be the Reef, the home of the Awoken, the blue-skinned bunch with the glowing eyes. They are ruled by an Awoken Queen, Mara Sov, who went missing and was presumed killed following a battle with Oryx, the Taken King, that led into the Destiny DLC of the same name. Her brother and spymaster, Uldren Sov, survived the battle: His ship crashed into Hellas Basin on Mars, the location—coincidence or not—of the most recent Destiny 2 DLC, Warmind. 

Take it for what it's worth, but I have a feeling that the further adventures of The Queen and Her Bro may be the theme of Year 2. We shall see. 

Today's update also has information on the revamped Faction Rally event, which will begin on June 5, and features a new Renown system and improved rewards. To make players' choice of faction more meaningful, you'll now have to pledge per account rather than per character, meaning those masochists running three toons won't be able to pick a different faction for each. That matters because in its loot pool, each of the factions now has a unique Exotic armor ornament and weapon catalyst that can't be found elsewhere in the game. My money is on Dead Orbit winning this round, thanks to its Graviton Lance upgrade.

Finally, Bungie announced an immediate nerf to the Escalation Protocol activity that will bring recommended power levels for rounds 4-7 down somewhat. The first three rounds remain untouched, however, so if you're still getting your ass kicked on round 2, sorry, but you're going to keep suffering until you can get your power level up. 

"We've been looking at our internal data while listening to all of your feedback about Escalation Protocol since the launch of Warmind. Reading these stats, not as many players are attempting Escalation Protocol with a fireteam of three as our designs intended, mostly because of how difficult waves 6 and 7 are," Bungie wrote. "Tweaking the difficulty of waves 6 and 7 very quickly through Power level changes is something we can do right away because of the server flags mentioned above, rather than waiting a number of weeks to deliver a patch." 

"By reducing the Power levels of the latter waves, we are intending to make Escalation Protocol more approachable for players who want to try the activity at 385 as a fireteam of three with potential help from others in the world. Getting nine players into the same space will still be possible, but for those at or close to max level, it shouldn’t feel as necessary as before."

While it may disappoint some that Bungie has softened an otherwise bracingly hard PvE activity to pander to less skilled players, the truth is that trying to get nine people into an instance is currently a ballache, and the idea that this activity was tuned for teams of three always felt like nonsense. Given that some of the best guns in the game drop from Escalation Protocol—the shotgun, sniper and SMG are all worth grinding for—it's good that more people will realistically be able to get their hands on them.

We'll have more coverage on next week's reveal as it happens. Whatever Bungie names it, you can bet the community calls it The Taken Queen.