Bungie keeps Destiny 1 era rotating content lockout

After considerable fan push-back (and the wake of the big Battlefront II controversy), Bungie admits they messed up by using the Curse of Osiris expansion to lock gamers out of Destiny 2 content they previously had access to. Some things are getting "fixed," but mostly Bungie is reverting to the old original Destiny 1 temporary lock-out model.

I still remember when Bungie did this in the original Destiny: when the first expansion hit, daily and weekly activities were often locked behind expansion-only maps or areas. So if you didn't buy the latest expansion there would always be a chance that key activities were simply not available to you. As I predicted, Bungie did the same thing with Destiny 2. But now they're doing something different: fixing some of the issues while doing more of the same.

Over the past few months Destiny 2 players have felt quite jaded. The game's progression system isn't so rewarding, and the Eververse is frustrating people. Many are questioning why they still play. The game's latest Curse of Osiris expansion, which Activision affirms will be the first of many content/expansion updates, was a big deal to many and seen as a way to add more value to the game. But alas Bungie actually ended up taking away from non-expansion owners (again), this time the Prestige-level Raids and Nightfalls, as well as the Trials of the Nine game mode.

Both of these will return soon, says Bungie, but there's a catch: since normal Nightfall activities and Trials of the Nine rotate in and out of certain maps and areas, they can still be unavailable to non-expansion owners for a week at a time, just like in the original Destiny (Bungie and Activision really want you to buy the expansion if you hadn't noticed).

Here's what Bungie said in their recent blog post:

• Trials of The Nine will only require Curse of Osiris when it features a Curse of Osiris map. For all other weeks, it will be available to all players.
• The Prestige Leviathan Raid will be brought back down to Power 300, and its rewards will drop down to match the new Power Level. All players will regain access to the Prestige Raid.
• The Prestige Nightfall will remain a pinnacle activity, at the new 330 Power cap; This means Prestige Nightfall will require ownership of Curse of Osiris.
• Normal Nightfall will only require Curse of Osiris when it features a Curse of Osiris map. For all other weeks it will be available to all players.
• Time limited events - Iron Banner, Faction Rally, and The Dawning, will be made available to all players.

And here's Bungie's full statement:

With Curse of Osiris now live, it's clear that we've made some mistakes with how we have handled content access. We would like to talk through the reasoning behind our decisions so far and what we are committed to changing moving forward.

The Destiny endgame features a variety of activities and playlists that we want to remain relevant to players as they grow more powerful. In Destiny 1, as your character grew more powerful throughout each expansion, some of our best content, like Vault of Glass, was left behind and lost its relevance for players. We wanted a better solution for Destiny 2, where all of our Endgame activities could stay relevant as each Expansion causes your Guardian to grow more and more powerful.

The following were our goals when we separated "Normal" and "Prestige" modes:

• The Normal Leviathan Raid and Normal Nightfall would always stay at a Power level that was accessible to all players.
• Prestige difficulty would always rise to the new Power cap. It could be the pinnacle of challenge, with the most prestigious rewards, but it therefore would require you to own the latest Expansion and be at the new Power cap.

Additionally, the game provides Seasonal, time-limited PvP playlists - Trials of The Nine and Iron Banner. These activities and their rewards are meant to evolve each Season, and they utilize new maps, so they would require you to own the latest content. To play the latest season of Iron Banner or Trials, and earn the new rewards, players would need to own Curse of Osiris.

We've heard from the community that both of these plans aren't working. The Prestige Raid was a novel experience that players value, even if they don't own Curse of Osiris, and it was a mistake to move that experience out of reach. Throughout the lifetime of the Destiny Franchise, Trials has always required that players owned the latest Expansion. However, for Destiny 2, Trials of The Nine launched as part of the main game, so it's not right for us to remove access to it.

To make matters worse, our team overlooked the fact that both of these mistakes disabled Trophies and Achievements for Destiny 2. This was an unacceptable lapse on our part, and we can understand the frustration it has created.

Therefore, this week, we will release a hotfix that will make the following changes:

The Prestige Leviathan Raid will be brought back down to Power 300, and its rewards will drop down to match the new Power Level. All players will regain access to the Prestige Raid.

This will allow access to "The Prestige" Achievement/Trophy for all players.

This will also allow all players ability to complete the final step for the Legend of Acrius Exotic Shotgun.

Trials of The Nine will only require Curse of Osiris when it features a Curse of Osiris map. For all other weeks, it will be available to all players.

This will allow access to "Lest Ye Be Judged" Achievement/Trophy for all players.

Trials of The Nine rewards that launched with Destiny 2 will still be accessible to all players.

New Seasonal Rewards that launched with Curse of Osiris, such as the new Seasonal Armor Ornaments, will require ownership of Curse of Osiris to acquire.

The Prestige Nightfall will remain a pinnacle activity, at the new 330 Power cap.

This means Prestige Nightfall will require ownership of Curse of Osiris.

Because of this, we will update "The Prestige" Achievement/Trophy to only reference The Prestige Raid.

Moving forward, we are investigating adding a 3rd difficulty to all Prestige activities, so that we can provide both a challenge that stays relevant with each new Expansion, and a Prestige version that is available to all players.

Normal Nightfall will only require Curse of Osiris when it features a Curse of Osiris map. For all other weeks it will be available to all players.

Time limited events - Iron Banner, Faction Rally, and The Dawning, will be made available to all players.

We will be postponing tomorrow's Faction Rally, to ensure all of our players can access the activity and the appropriate rewards.

Iron Banner and Faction Rally rewards that launched with Destiny 2 will still be accessible to all players.

New Seasonal Rewards that launch with Curse of Osiris, such as the new Seasonal Armor Ornaments, will require ownership of Curse of Osiris to acquire.

We expect these changes to go live tomorrow at the end of scheduled maintenance to deploy Update 1.1.1.1. Moving forward, we are also looking to improve on Heroic Strikes, with new challenges, new Modifiers, and free access for all players.