During its Shadowkeep DLC reveal, Destiny 2 developer Bungie trolled fans on PC by joking about an Epic Games Store release. The developer made the joke right before announcing that now that Bungie is self-publishing Destiny 2, the game will be released on Steam.
In a Twitch livestream that took place yesterday, Bungie explained that now that it is no longer owned by Activision, Destiny 2 on PC needs to “find a new home.” Destiny 2 PC had launched on Battle.net, the PC game launcher created by Blizzard, which is one of Activision’s game studios.
The big announcement was that Destiny 2 PC is going to be available on Steam, but game director Luke Smith couldn’t resist trolling fans, just for a moment. Laughing to himself, Smith joked that “some would say we need an epic partner.” The Destiny 2 Steam launch was confirmed just moments later, but Smith’s troll was enough to send the livestream chat into a frenzy. The Twitch chat was filled with disappointment, but only for a moment.
Destiny 2 players on PC have wanted the game to come to Steam since it launched in 2017, but Battle.net was the obvious home for the Activision-published game. However, once Bungie split from Activision and retained the rights to Destiny, there was speculation the company might take the PC version to the Epic Games Store as yet another exclusive.
This is also why so many fans were happy when Smith did just happen to be trolling, with the “epic partner” joke. The Epic Games Store does offer a much better revenue split than Steam, but the launcher doesn’t offer features like game reviews or cloud saves.
Things did turn out well for fans unsure of Bungie’s Destiny 2 plans. Yesterday, it was also confirmed that Destiny 2 will be available on Google Stadia, allowing people to play the game on Internet-connected devices such as their mobile phones and tablets. Destiny 2’s Year 1 content will also be free-to-play and cross-save has been confirmed for all platforms.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
