I think it’s fair to say that one of the worst things Bungie ever did to Destiny 2 was remove entire campaigns and activities that players had previously paid for. I understand that the studio had its reasons for introducing the Destiny Content Vault, especially considering how difficult it had become to maintain the game’s growing amount of content. But I also don’t think that makes the decision any less disappointing, particularly for players who might want to go back and experience some of those older campaigns again. Thankfully, Bungie has finally decided to do something about it, and I actually think its plan to restore that missing content could be one of the best things it does for Destiny 2 moving forward.
Unfortunately, there’s a fairly significant catch to that plan, and it’s one that makes me wonder how much patience Bungie expects its community to have left. According to the studio’s latest update, the work involved in restoring Destiny 2‘s missing campaigns and activities is expected to continue until early 2028, which means players who have already spent years waiting for this content to return could be looking at another lengthy wait. And while I’m certainly glad Bungie is finally addressing one of the game’s most controversial decisions, I can’t help but feel that the timing is a little unfortunate, especially when the whole point of the project is to start rebuilding the trust that was lost when that content disappeared in the first place.
Destiny 2’s Missing Campaigns Are Finally Coming Back, But There’s a Catch
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In Bungie’s October 29 Community Update, Head of Product Josh Deane confirmed that the studio’s first phase of content restoration will focus on bringing back the Red War, Curse of Osiris, Warmind, and Forsaken campaigns, along with their associated Strikes, Raids, and Raid Lairs. The Menagerie activity is also included in those plans, complete with reprised rewards, and Bungie says all of this content will be available to every Destiny 2 player. That’s a pretty substantial amount of content to bring back, especially considering the Red War was the original campaign players experienced when Destiny 2 launched in 2017. Unfortunately, it was removed alongside Curse of Osiris and Warmind in November 2020, while Forsaken’s campaign followed in February 2022.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Now, while I think it’s great that Bungie is finally bringing those campaigns back, the timeline for their return is a little harder to get excited about. According to Deane, the project is currently in pre-production, which is expected to continue until January or February 2027. After that, Bungie anticipates another 12 months of full production to complete the process of porting the content into the current version of Destiny 2, putting that work’s estimated completion sometime in early 2028. And even then, that’s not necessarily when players will be able to access everything, because Bungie hasn’t actually announced a release date for the restored content. In other words, there’s still a chance that some of these campaigns will have been unavailable for almost eight years by the time players finally get to experience them again.
According to the studio’s latest update, the work involved in restoring Destiny 2‘s missing campaigns and activities is expected to continue until early 2028…
To be fair, I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect Bungie to bring back years’ worth of missing content overnight, especially when the game itself has changed so much since some of those campaigns were originally available. In its September announcement, the studio explained that restoring older content isn’t as simple as putting the original files back into the game. Changes made since Beyond Light mean Bungie needs to update lighting, encounters, enemies, and other underlying systems before everything will work properly again. And honestly, I’d much rather the studio take its time and make sure everything works than rush the content back into the game just to satisfy players who have been asking for it. Still, there’s something rather unfortunate about the fact that content players once had access to now requires this much work just to make it playable again.
What’s more, Bungie’s plans don’t necessarily mean that everything removed from Destiny 2 over the years will eventually make its way back into the game. While the original campaigns and their associated activities are the priority, the studio is only investigating the possibility of restoring free-roam destinations, older seasonal activities, and PvP maps as additional goals. Meanwhile, seasonal story missions and an updated New Light experience currently have no path to restoration. That’s a shame, too, because bringing back the original campaigns without the seasonal story missions would still leave a lot of Destiny 2‘s story missing. And while I’d certainly rather have those campaigns back than not have them at all, I think Bungie should be aiming to restore as much of the game’s history as possible, especially if it wants new players to experience the story for themselves.
Destiny 2’s Restoration Plan Needs to Be Worth the Wait
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All of that said, I do think Bungie deserves some credit for acknowledging just how much damage the Destiny Content Vault did to its relationship with the community. In the October update, Deane admitted that removing essential content fractured the experience and broke faith with players, and I think that’s an important thing for the studio to recognize if it genuinely wants to move forward. However, acknowledging a mistake and correcting it are two very different things, and that’s where the 2028 timeline becomes such a problem. There are undoubtedly players who have already moved on from Destiny 2, and I have to wonder whether the promise of getting their old campaigns back in another year or more will be enough to convince them to return. After all, the longer Bungie takes to restore that content, the longer players have to decide whether they even want to bother with the game again.
Still, I can’t think of many better ways for Bungie to begin repairing its relationship with Destiny 2 players than by giving them back the content they lost access to years ago. And I don’t think this is simply about nostalgia, either, because having those campaigns available again would make the game considerably easier to recommend to someone who has never played it before. Personally, I think that’s where the real value of this project lies, because Destiny 2 shouldn’t be a game where new players have to watch hours of videos just to understand the story they’re jumping into. Of course, whether Bungie can actually deliver on those plans remains to be seen, and early 2028 is still a long way off. But if the studio wants players to believe in Destiny‘s future again, making its past accessible seems like a pretty good place to start. I just wish it hadn’t taken this long to get there.
- Released
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August 28, 2017
- ESRB
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T For TEEN for Blood, Language, and Violence
