The Final Shape Update

Today, Bungie officially announced The Final Shape delay that was leaked weeks ago. The announcement also comes with a short blog post briefly outlining some of the things they'll be adding to the game to hold us over between the end of Season of the Wish and the new The Final Shape release date. They also released a short update video from game director Joe Blackburn, which reiterated the points from the blog post and added a few extra details. These are short videos, and worth watching on their own, but here are the cliff notes as always:

• They are delaying in order to "deliver an even bigger and bolder vision, one that we hope will be remembered and treasured for years to come"
• Season of the Wish is launching soon, with the new dungeon Warlord's Ruin coming soon after.
• Fireteam Finder will change how most players interact with the game, but it's a pretty big change, thus rolling it out in phases until it's completely ready (target is soon after the new year).
• They are going to be testing how Checkmate works in the larger Crucible environment, and then potentially take some of the rules experimented with in the mode (e.g. slower ability recharge rate, new special ammo rules) and port them into the core Crucible experience.
• Season of the Wish content will largely run from late November to February as originally planned, but they will be adding some content to hold players over until the launch of the expansion.
  • In February, they will be releasing "weekly progression-based, rewards centric quests called Wishes".
  • In March, Guardian Games will be held, with a new emphasis on class v class competition.
  • In April and May there will be a "new period of Destiny" called Into the Light. This will be a free content pack, built for veterans but especially will be built for new players. More details will be announced in the new year.
  • 3 new PvP maps will be dropping in May. One in Europa, one in Neomuna, and one in the terraformed pyramid. Internal favorite currently seems to be Europa. They will all be about "Javelin-4 sized". They hope these maps will be able to excel in modes like Trials and the Competitive playlist.
• Most of the team is working on The Final Shape.
• They've been keeping their cards close to the chest with regard to the gameplay additions and systems changes that will be coming.

Did we miss anything? Let us known in the #tips channel on our Discord.

Sources:

• The Final Shape Release Update
• An Update from Game Director Joe Blackburn