Destiny 2 is finally getting crossplay across console, cloud, and PC, but players may find that the update comes with a new name for their Guardian. Crossplay is a highly requested feature from an audience now used to playing with friends in other games regardless of hardware choices. Apex Legends supports crossplay, as do Overwatch and Rocket League, and now it's Destiny's turn. Bungie's online-centric FPS has tested gameplay between different platforms before, but Season 15 will turn on the switch for good and allow everyone to team up regardless of hardware.
Destiny has a lot more brewing than this highly-requested feature. Bungie has announced when fans can expect more news about Destiny 2's The Witch Queen expansion. A digital showcase about the new content will premiere towards the end of August, and it will likely be full of details about the expansion. Although the release date for The Witch Queen no longer lies in 2021, players will only have to wait until Febuary of 2022 to experience Bungie's new batch of missions, loot, and Guardian cosmetics.
The latest weekly update from Bungie dives deep on what crossplay will mean for existing players, as well as how their experience might change because of the new feature. This includes creating a universal "Bungie name" that will supersede the names currently in place in Destiny 2's various versions. Those with names that have some of the more unusual characters supported on Steam will have their names replaced. Bungie encourages changing them over to avoid a generic rename to "Guardian" with a number attached, especially since the option to change this new username won't be available when crossplay launches.
All names will have a number attached to them in order to facilitate those with similar tags. This will let Destiny 2 players search for friends regardless of platform, even if it will mean typing in a few extra numerals. There will also be a platform filter for those who want to stick to one particular console for their matchmaking endeavors.
In the majority of Destiny 2's world, crossplay supports all platforms by default, but competitive modes work a little different. Parties with PC players will automatically match with other PC opponents, and console players will match only with other people using gamepads. This is mostly to avoid the perceived advantage that keyboard and mouse players have over gamepad users, but the latter can prove the odds wrong by continuing to use an Xbox controller on PC.
Crossplay updates have become a common sight among multiplayer-focused games, and Destiny 2's implementation seems to be what players have come to expect. A small number of forced name changes is a minor inconvenience when weighed against the ability for Destiny 2 fans to build a squad from everyone they know. With newer games like Halo Infinite launching with crossplay as a default feature, one of the last true walls remaining between Xbox, PlayStation, and PC is going down. When season 15 launches, fans will be able to see how well the feature works in modern games like Destiny 2.
Destiny 2 is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Stadia.
Source: Bungie