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Update: The counter in question has now been removed, but it's unclear what that means, if anything.
It's an exciting day for Destiny. Heresy, Destiny 2's newest season (or episode, if we're keeping with the changes to the official nomenclature) is here, sending Guardians back to their own Taken King-era stomping grounds aboard the Dreadnaught. But while there are big things happening in Destiny's present moment, Heresy's also giving us a hint at Destiny's future, indicating we should expect a July launch date for the summer expansion that'll kick off the next multi-year Destiny 2 saga.
As with the launch of every new Destiny 2 season, players who log in today and look at the new season pass will be greeted with a countdown timer showing how long they've still got to earn their seasonal rewards. At time of writing, the current season pass says that the Heresy episode ends in just 160 days and 22 hours, leaving us with an end date of July 15, 2025.
Heresy's five month runtime will make it one of the longest stretches between Destiny 2 content drops to date, beaten only by Season of the Lost's 181 days and Season of the Wish's 189. It's worth noting that Season of the Lost and Season of the Wish ran long due to delays: both were the last seasons before the launches of yearly expansions whose release dates Bungie had pushed back. When Destiny 2 seasons stretch, it's typically because Bungie's working on getting a big release out the door.
- Destiny 2's new episode hits next week, sending players back into the giant, haunted spaceship where the first game had its finest moments
- 'Destiny has a long history of reinventing itself in response to feedback': Assistant director teases a Metroidvania-inspired future, talks weapon crafting and vault space, but fails to address the shocking number of bugs
Heresy's July end date, meanwhile, lands within the Summer 2025 release window that Bungie's latest Destiny 2 content roadmap had sketched out for the upcoming Codename: Apollo expansion. July 15 is also a Tuesday; Destiny expansions always drop on Tuesdays. It's not an official release date, of course, but the numbers line up well enough to serve as a rough estimate until Bungie gives us specifics.
Apollo will mark the beginning of Codename: Frontiers, Bungie's working title for Destiny 2's next major, multi-expansion narrative arc after The Final Shape closed out the decade-spanning Light and Darkness saga. So far, details about Apollo are sparse, but Bungie's called it a "nonlinear character-driven adventure," where the story "takes place over dozens of threads you’ll explore and discover" in the order you prefer. It also, based on early concept art released by Bungie, seems like it'll involve a big, crashed spaceship. Everyone loves a big, crashed spaceship.
How Destiny will look five months from now, however, is an open question. Heresy arrives in a moment where player counts on Steam have been hitting historic lows amidst frustrations with Destiny 2's new act-based episode structure and a sense of narrative stagnation. But if I know Destiny players, nothing sparks their interest like a giant, haunted spaceship full of guns. Hopefully Heresy can move the needle.
And hey, you can dress your Titan up like a stormtrooper now, if you're into that.
