Destiny 2's Season of Opulence kicks off on Tuesday, June 4, marking the final new content under its current annual pass subscription. What happens in Destiny 2 after that? There's been a lot of speculation from players, but it looks like we're about to find out.
On Twitter, Bungie teased what is seemingly a livestream set to take place at 10 AM PT on Thursday, June 6, to discuss "the next chapter of Destiny 2." Let the speculation begin, since we have no idea what that next chapter might be.
— Bungie (@Bungie) May 30, 2019
It's been clear to Destiny 2 players keeping up with the annual pass--the second since the release of Destiny 2--that Bungie is building its story in a particular direction. The endgame content that came with the Forsaken expansion, concerning the besieged Dreaming City, has slowly unfolded over the last two seasons, hinting that secret enemies are executing plans of which we've only seen the edges and margins. That conflict might come to a head in the Season of Opulence, but that seems unlikely since the next content drop returns players to the Leviathan, the scene of Destiny 2's first raid, and concerns a different group of characters.
The Dreaming City situation doesn't seem primed to wrap up anytime soon, and that suggests there's more content coming for Destiny 2 before the release of the seemingly inevitable Destiny 3. A third year of Destiny 2 content is in line with what a lot of players have been expecting, and it would make sense for Bungie to hold back a new Destiny title to correspond with the start of a new console generation.
The timing of the announcement also seems remarkable. Breaking with the usual pattern, Bungie is releasing Destiny 2's new raid, Crown of Sorrows, with the start of the Season of Opulence, rather than waiting a few days for players to gear up for it. Bungie's announcement about Destiny 2's future takes place two days later, which would give the game's top raid teams all the time they'll need to finish Crown of Sorrows--and discover whatever story implications it presents. Fans on Reddit are already expecting that whatever happens on the Crown of Sorrows will point players back to the Dreadnaught, a Destiny 1 location that leaks and speculation have suggested would be the setting for the game's next expansion.
It's also worth remembering that the Season of Opulence marks the last of the announced Destiny 2 content from before Bungie's split with publisher Activision. Whatever comes next, it'll be the first Destiny content Bungie creates purely on its own. With the way Destiny's story has been going of late, suggesting the approach of more evil aliens and the possibility that some heroes could fall to darkness, there's a lot the developer could explore.