Bungie reverses the Destiny 2 wind-down and will bring back vaulted campaigns, starting with Red War

Bungie has backed away from winding down Destiny 2. In a post titled "The Next Chapter for Bungie", the studio's new leadership promised to bring back campaigns, destinations and raids that were removed from the game over the years. The first one named is Red War, the 2017 campaign Destiny 2 launched with. Returning content will be free for every player.

"We are not done with Destiny," Bungie wrote, as quoted by Kotaku. As recently as June the studio had named Monuments of Triumph as the game's last major update.

What comes back, and when

Bungie started removing old content in November 2020 with Beyond Light: campaigns, whole destinations and raids left the game one after another, paid expansions included. That content vault stayed the biggest complaint about Destiny 2 for years. Now it is being opened, but with no dates.

Bungie warns it will not be quick. "Bringing this content back is not as simple as restoring old files," the post says: lighting, encounters and systems all need to be brought up to the current game. No season or date has been given for any campaign yet.

Why Bungie changed its mind

The wind-down caused a wave of anger. A petition against it gathered more than 400,000 signatures, according to Kotaku, and Bungie openly says players' voices shaped the decision. Meanwhile fans had already found a way to run vaulted content through old offline builds of the game, as PC Gamer reported.

There is a business side too. In the same post the studio says its new game, Marathon, needs to evolve. PC Gamer calls unvaulting Destiny 2 a studio-saving emergency decision, because Marathon updates alone were never going to be enough.

For players it is a promise without a schedule for now. But if Red War really returns, new players will finally be able to start the Destiny 2 story at the beginning instead of the middle.