It’s official. After a handful of leaks, Destiny: Rise of Iron is real.
Bungie revealed the new expansion for its sci-fi shooter today on Twitch, and we now know that it will debut September 20 for $30 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The studio confirmed this add-on will not come to Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, but it does plan to provide an upgrade path for people who want to carry on their characters on a newer platform. Destiny has 30 million registered players. Bungie wants to keep as many of them as possible coming back for its annual updates. Activision recently reported $908 million in revenues for its first quarter, and Destiny is an important part of that.
For months, Bungie has positioned its next expansion as “large.” It never defined what that means until now. Rise of Iron features a new campaign and quests that tell a new story, which fits existing lore. Players also have a chance to find new armor, gear, and weapons — that includes a special, updated version of the beloved Gjallahorn from Destiny in 2014.
Other additions include a new zone and a new social space along with fresh competitive multiplayer maps, a new co-op Strike, and a higher maximum Light level.
Wrapping up the new content, Bungie is including another Raid in Rise of Iron. House of Wolves, the previous expansion, did not come with a Raid, and that caused some headaches for the studio as fans were expecting every expansion to introduce one of these new multiplayer co-op campaigns.
Finally, much of the artwork for Rise of Iron features one of the Guardian characters wielding the flaming Gjallahorn alongside a pack of wolves. Unfortunately, that’s not an option you’ll have in the expansion.
You cannot raise wolves or join a pack in Rise of Iron. Bungie says you can still choose to do this in your real life if you want, but it’s not in its shooter. I guess I’ll go do that, then. Hopefully they don’t consume me before September 20.