Bungie confirms plans to 'vault' Destiny 2 content heading into Year 4 and beyond

An ever present dilemma that Bungie has faced with the development of Destiny 2 is how to introduce new content to the game while keeping the total file size within a reasonable amount.

At the present time Destiny 2 takes over 100GB of storage space while most of the current generation consoles only have a 500GB hard drive. It's easy to see the problem here.

It seems Bungie has finally decided on an approach to this problem that will shrink the overall file size, keep the core activities available and give themselves the opportunity to reintroduce old content to the game. This approach is known as the Destiny Content Vault.

The Destiny Content Vault (DVC) is a new system being introduced with Beyond Light that will allow Bungie to cycle older, less played content out from Destiny 2 in order to keep the game from becoming too bloated.

This content will have the possibility of being readded to the game at a later date once some revisions have been made to make sure the content still fits with the current sandbox.

During the live stream Destiny 2 Game Director Luke Smith stated the following about the DCV:

“We don’t want to put another number on the box. So instead here’s our plan. Each year just as a new expansion comes out we’re going to cycle older, less actively played activity and destination content out of the live game and into what we’re calling the Destiny Content Vault, the DCV. Moving content into this vault is going to allow us to  add support for D2 for years including Beyond Light, The Witch Queen and Lightfall.”

Bungie has also decided to add all of Destiny 1’s content to the DCV to give themselves the opportunity to take this older content and update it with a fresh coat of paint for Destiny 2 when the time is right.

“This vault is also gonna allow us to take content from Destiny 1, do some work on it, get it ready to come back into the Destiny 2 ecosystem. So we’re not just going to be taking stuff away, we’re also going to be going into the classic vault and kinda bringing some stuff back or unvaulting activity and destination content each year” said Smith on the topic of older content being cycled back into Destiny 2.

“Thinking about the greatest hits of Destiny right?” added General Manager Mark Noseworthy.

To give the playerbase a small taste of what’s possible with the DCV Bungie has stated that the Destiny 1 location of the Cosmodrome will be reintroduced to Destiny 2 alongside the release of Beyond Light on September 22nd.

This version of the Cosmodrome will not be an exact copy of the original, but will instead be a decent amount smaller as its main purpose is to expand the new Guardian origin story to the world of Destiny.

In addition, the Will of Crota strike will be added to the Strikes playlist for all players.

As time passes Bungie will be continually adding content from the DCV back into Destiny 2 with the full Cosmodrome being added in Season 13, along with the Fallen S.A.B.E.R Strike, and the Vault of Glass returning in Season 14.

Unfortunately this means that on September 22nd with the release of Beyond Light a significant amount of content will be leaving Destiny 2 and be placed into the DCV. The following locations will be cycled out:

• Io
• Titan
• Mars
• Mercury
• Leviathan

This cycling of locations also includes all PvE activities such as Campaign missions and Raids. Bungie wants to make it clear that weapons and armor will not be cycled out of Destiny 2, only activities and destinations.

To ease fears Bungie also shared some key details about how the DCV will affect current content in the game:

• There will be three raids playable this fall, including a new one set in the Deep Stone Crypt on Europa as part of the Beyond Light expansion.
• There will be new ways to earn Exotics originally tied to destinations and activity content that have entered the Destiny Content Vault.
• Available strikes will be based on a pool of possible strikes from active destinations. When a destination goes into the DCV, so too will its strikes.
• The PvP Map playlist will remain a curated ‘best of’ mixture of maps from Destiny 1 and 2.
• Gambit and Gambit Prime are being merged into a single mode, with their original armor visuals available to earn from the Drifter.

It really does seem like the DCV will be a healthy addition to the game, and in maintaining its longevity, but like all things it comes down to execution. Bungie will need to make sure that only appropriate content is rotated out while continually adding in older content.

Bungie obviously can't take out and add in content at a 1:1 ratio as that would defeat the purpose of the DCV but the point still remains that there does need to be some re-additions for the DCV to properly work.

The new Destiny Content Vault will launch alongside Beyond Light when it releases on September 22nd on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.