Bungie announces major crossplay changes for Destiny 2 Season 15

The main question is whether aim-assists will be game-changing when it comes to PvP in Destiny 2 (Image via Bungie)
The main question is whether aim-assists will be game-changing when it comes to PvP in Destiny 2 (Image via Bungie)

Destiny 2 has many activities ranging from PvE to PvP where Guardians can hop onto anything and farm for loot and materials. Out of all of these activities, the one that stands out the most is Bungie's allowance for aim-assisting along with target acquisition modifications.

With the announcement of cross-play, the developer got the entire community thinking about the changes and the balance they will be working on. Of course, there will be aim-assists for the players on consoles, but the main question is whether it will be game-changing when it comes to PvP.

In the recent TWAB (This week at Bungie), the American company has answered all the questions regarding the crossplay system they're bringing in for the upcoming season.


Bungie and its crossplay plans for Destiny 2 Season 15

1) Changes that can be expected in the new season

Guardians across all gaming platforms, including PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, will be able to join each other's fireteams and jump into all kinds of activities to take on the Darkness.

Bungie announced changes to the UI and roster screen inside Destiny 2, which include:

  • Guardian's Identity
  • Changes in naming
  • Friends from Bungie.net
  • Fireteam invites and Multiplayer
  • Privacy
  • Cross-Play Matchmaking
  • Cross-Play communication
  • The Crossplay Roadmap

During Destiny 2 Season 14, the publisher invited Guardians from all systems to come forward and beta test the matchmaking for the Vanguard Strikes. Although many Guardians answered their calls for playing the beta version of crossplay, they also got an unintended sneak peek into the other features of crossplay. However, this was shut down by Bungie soon after.


2) Guardian's identity in Destiny 2 Season 15

This crossplay change will also come with a cross-save, so Bungie kept the name over the Guardian's head unchanged regardless of where a certain account is logged in. The same applies to anyone on the friend list.

One thing that will change, though, is everyone's identity. This will remain consistent across all platforms regardless of where the Guardians play or launch the game from and will be called "Bungie Name."

While Bungie Name is better for everyone, in the long run, it also allows for a one-time naming shuffle.

Example of a player tooltip in the roster screen of Destiny 2 (Image via Bungie)
Example of a player tooltip in the roster screen of Destiny 2 (Image via Bungie)

Bungie Names will work and look like the following:

  1. "Bungie Name": PlayerName#1234
  2. "Display Name": PlayerName
  3. "Hash": #
  4. "Numeric ID": 1234

3) Adding friends in Destiny 2 Season 15

With the entire crossplay and naming changes comes another feature called "Bungie Friends." Guardians can find all of their friends inside one flat list. A specific platform filter will be added to distinguish people logged into the same platform or a different one.

There are three different ways to add friends from platforms. They are:

  • Logging into Destiny 2 and turning the platform friends into Bungie Friends. Guardians can then send requests via the Roster screen.
  • Searching for friends using Player Search on the invite screen.
  • Using Bungie.net friends finder, Guardians can link all their platforms and send requests to all the friends across every platform.

Bungie.net Friendfinder will become available in Season 15 alongside Cross-Play and can be found here.


4) Fireteams in Destiny 2 Season 15

Bungie will pull all the invite infrastructure in-game to get it working with cross-platform fireteam invitations and lobbies. Guardians will receive a fireteam invite that they can access via in-game notification.

To accept, Guardians will have to navigate to the roster screen, followed by the invite section, and then interact with the invite to accept and join the fireteam.

The Season 15 roster screen in Destiny 2 (Image via Bungie)
The Season 15 roster screen in Destiny 2 (Image via Bungie)

A blocking system will be added for the Guardians to protect themselves from online harassment. Social privacy settings can be accessed from the roster screen, where Guardians will have control over different kinds of invites.

Any targeted harassment inside fireteams will result in bans. Bungie wants the Guardians to keep a clean and friendly lobby.


5) PvP and PvE matchmaking in Destiny 2 Season 15

Questions about matchmaking of PvP were always in the minds of the PC community when Bungie first announced the concept of crossplay.

However, in a recent announcement, Bungie has clarified the steps they have taken about level-playing in competitive playlists such as Crucible, Iron Banner, Gambit, and Trials of Osiris.

  • PC players will match with others of the same platform
  • Console gamers will match with other players of the same platform
  • Stadia will be in the console pull
  • Fireteams with any combination of PC console players will match in the PC player pool.

They further added that PvE matchmaking would have global pools where fireteams can consist of Guardians from all three platforms.