Destiny 2 cross-play will arrive "early" in the next season and receive additional features in the months ahead.
Bungie outlined its long-term plans for cross-play in its latest blog post. The studio didn't commit to an exact cross-play release date and time, but did speak to the features it has in store. There's a big focus on the social aspects of cross-play, but let's get one of the hottest topics out of the way first: how does matchmaking work?
The short answer is that all PvE activities will have a shared matchmaking pool. But in PvP modes (including Gambit), PC players will only play with other PC players, while console and Google Stadia players will have their own pool. If you're in a pre-built fireteam consisting of PC and console players, you'll go into the PC matchmaking pool.
Now then, to keep things straightforward as multiple platforms merge their naming conventions, Bungie's issuing new identifiers appropriately called Bungie names. You'll keep your old username to display, but your Bungie ID and numeric tag will be attached to your account as well.
Sadly, as a result of this unified friend language, the many meme names that have appeared since Destiny 2 came to Steam – you know, the ones that are nothing but a bunch of symbols like sniper rifles and Halo energy swords – will no longer be viable. If you have a name like that, best to update it manually now before cross-play arrives, otherwise you'll automatically receive a boilerplate name which you'll be stuck with for a while since a name change option won't be available immediately after cross-play launches.
This new ID will also be a cornerstone for cross-platform friend invites. Here are the three main ways you can add Bungie friends across platforms, straight from the studio's notice:
- "Log into Destiny 2 on a device where you want to turn platform friends into Bungie Friends, and then issue requests via our Roster screen."
- "Search for your friends using player search on the Invite screen."
- "Use Bungie.net friends finder, where you can link all of your platforms, and then issue Bungie Friends requests to all your platform friends."
Bungie also shared an image of the new fireteam invite UI, which has been expanded slightly. It's also gained a block system and additional privacy tools "so that players can protect themselves." Here's how it looks in-game:
"Soon" after cross-play arrives, Bungie plans to add cross-platform voice chat. This winter, it's looking to expand the game's social features further with text chat display on consoles (plus USB keyboard input) and the aforementioned name change feature.
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