Table of Contents
To say Future 2 had a foul 2025 is sort of the understatement, like saying Mint Retrograde and the Praxic Blade are simply alright. This yr was nothing wanting a catastrophe for Bungie’s flagship title, even with Renegades displaying indicators of a restoration.
2026 will likely be a decisive yr for Bungie, a studio whose whole 2025 was a make-or-break second. The developer is underneath new route and Marathon is lastly releasing. Simply maintaining Future 2 alive isn’t the bar to goal for in 2026, particularly given how a lot it struggled to take action with The Fringe of Destiny.
There’s lots I’d like to see change inside the sport come 2026. However a optimistic future for Future 2 has to repair the frayed relationship between jaded gamers and an embattled developer—on the threat of breeding apathy and alienating much more of its fanbase.
Much less dependence on the Portal
The Portal was The Fringe of Destiny‘s essential method of participating with the sport, and Future 2 struggled for it. Something that wasn’t within the Portal was primarily ineffective for leveling up, and boosting your Energy was the one strategy to get higher-quality gear.
The Portal could be a first rate method of enjoying Future 2, however it shouldn’t be the one strategy to play the sport. For a wealthy universe, pigeonholing gamers right into a dozen actions that seem in a Netflix-esque menu is concerning the least fascinating strategy to slice it.
Renegades already began correcting this by providing the Lawless Frontier, and it’s actually helped preserve our adventures within the Sol System far brisker than earlier than.
Extra gear, locations, and actions—even when they’re reissued
Renegades‘ reward highlights there may be life outdoors the Portal, and subsequent yr is a primary alternative to reissue loot from older raids and dungeons. Tier-compatible weapons and armor would go a good distance towards replayability, particularly in the event that they’re not entangled in a messy net of modifiers.
In fact, there’s a number of work concerned in updating weapons’ perk swimming pools and making armor set bonuses, and it will not be viable, however it will give us a purpose to redo actions like Duality.
We’d additionally like to see extra room for exploration returning subsequent yr. New territories are all the time welcome, however locations and outdated seasonal actions corresponding to The Derelict Leviathan or The Nether are ripe for that sort of journey, particularly in a non-Portal format. And what’s the Lawless Frontier if not a timed, Star Wars Nether?
Extra unlockable cosmetics
That one is, surprisingly, one thing Bungie has lastly been doing after years of fan requests. Nonary Engrams in Ceremony of the 9, the New Malpais decoration and distinctive helmet in Name to Arms, Iridescent Engrams, and Renegades‘ Darkish Matter Crystals are outstanding causes to maintain logging in and enjoying, and we’d like to see extra of them going ahead.
Iridescent Engrams particularly are a simple, thrilling addition on account of having significant rewards and guaranteeing new objects. It’s a surprise Shiny Engrams may even drop duplicates, as a result of the one factor extra riveting than a purple sparrow you’ll by no means use is a purple sparrow you’ll by no means use however have already got.
Much less greed
The Eververse retailer has been round Future 2 for ages, however The Fringe of Destiny actually made it really feel prefer it was on the forefront. Season passes began having 110 rewards for the equal of 150 ranges, and it’s arduous to neglect the unforgivable Gladius set fiasco.
Bungie took a ravishing set of armor and eliminated it from the (free) Iron Banner PvP mode, solely to promote it for premium foreign money as a brand new set, presenting a reskin of historic armor to the mode as an alternative. Followers would have been none the wiser about this shady apply in the event that they hadn’t uncovered (now-deleted) idea artwork that confirmed the Gladius set with the Iron Banner brand. Bungie threw a separate would-be Eververse set within the combine, however by then, the injury was clearly completed.
And the greed doesn’t simply translate to how Bungie handles cash, both, however how the studio appeared to need to squeeze each drop of playtime from its neighborhood. Bungie’s best wins have been the occasions when it reverted The Fringe of Destiny‘s modifications, corresponding to firming down the egregious grind, eradicating a reset in Renegades, and sunsetting Unstable Cores. The connection between participant and developer isn’t as unhealthy because it was months in the past, however it nonetheless requires a number of work. Reimplementing Dawning bounties and being extra beneficiant with Shiny Mud caps would have been a superb gesture.
Creating goodwill and truly constructing significant momentum
We know Bungie isn’t in its finest state. We perceive it doesn’t have the identical workforce it as soon as did, and it will probably’t ship an identical quantity or high quality of content material. However as an alternative of proudly owning it, the studio appeared intent on pretending that wasn’t taking place.
Its relationship with the neighborhood in The Fringe of Destiny felt nearly antagonistic, with predictably terrible modifications and an inaction that couldn’t have been an accident. Participant counts stored dropping, suggestions stored piling up, and the neighborhood perceived the studio as helpless. Bungie can’t afford that notion once more subsequent yr.
Group supervisor Dylan “Dmg_04” Gafner’s notorious “we have to construct momentum and preserve it” put up in September turned practically a meme in the neighborhood, particularly after the lukewarm Ash & Iron replace the next week. Bungie hasn’t actually achieved it nonetheless: even with Renegades‘ fashionable acclaim, the sensation could also be nearer to a feeble, cautious optimism attributable to a fluke fairly than an precise impetus ahead.
Subsequent yr, I hope to see Bungie embrace extra of the neighborhood that’s been with it via thick and skinny. It’s about eradicating obstacles fairly than creating new causes to play anything. Extra communication additionally helps, particularly if that comes accompanied by well timed responses that take participant suggestions into consideration. Sure, fixing points in Renegades is sweet, however fixing them three months earlier, when the sport was hemorrhaging gamers, would have been even higher.
Specializing in what’s outdoors the sport
I may write a whole grimoire on the gameplay modifications I’d like to see. I’d be pleased with Exotics lastly being tier 5, a system that permits you to select armor units like Competition of the Misplaced’s masks, a tuning go to weapons, an economic system overhaul, and way more forgiving caps on Shiny Mud from orders subsequent yr. However the half the place Bungie actually has to place in work occurs earlier than we even launch Future 2.
This isn’t the time to create any attrition or make gamers hesitate to open the sport. It’s not the second to depart guardians staring in apathy on the title display screen and surprise if it’s price leaping via all of the hoops, prefer it was in The Fringe of Destiny.
As an alternative, it’s about giving gamers extra incentive to maintain coming again as a result of they need to, not as a result of they really feel they need to. Certain, a number of it hinges on offering significant, high quality content material for gamers, however that’s not all it’s. Perhaps meaning cranking up the tap just a little and providing much more freebies to newcomers, lapsed gamers, and veterans alike. Perhaps it simply means not messing up in decisive moments or loosening the grip. That method, we received’t need to take a loud sigh at any time when somebody asks if they need to begin enjoying.
