Destiny 2’s PVP community feels largely ignored, but hopefully, a 2021 Update will address that. We’ve got a new update coming in August – Witch Queen on August 24th but will it actually help anything? Joe Blackburn, assistant game director of Destiny 2 addressed PVP in a long Twitter thread. He did say the team is working on improving the Crucible experience, or in his words, “plussing up the current Crucible experience.” The Destiny 2 dev didn’t give any real update for PVP in 2021, but he wanted to let the fans know that it’s being worked on.

Joe Blackburn pointed out in this thread that the first half of 2021 has been focused on setting a foundation. Now it’s time to look at new maps and modes. It’s been a very long time since we’ve seen a new PVP map. Perhaps years? Joe points out that consistency is the key though:

“If you play pvp, the team wants you to understand that you will be getting new maps and modes every year, and that the cadence of those coming out feels predictable. But in order to get predictable, we need to open the faucet again.”

He doesn’t openly talk about the frustration PVP players feel, but he goes into fair detail about what we can expect, and why things are the way they are. We understand that new maps take time to create and get right though. For now, there are two maps being ported to be compatible with the current engine. So two classic Destiny 2 maps are being pulled out of the vault. So, we can expect these in Season 16. What about 17 though? Destiny 2 is getting an update for PVP in 2021 and beyond though because as Joe says, they’re never “done”. Season 17 will debut a brand new map, and there will be new environments in Destiny 2 that will be brought to the Crucible. 

Whether or not these will come in 2021 though, remains to be seen. After those maps, Blackburn said there’s a Destiny 1 map that’s being brought back for the first time, for Season 18. But we need more than just rad maps. We need modes for them. How about Rift?

“First, the team is investigating getting Rift in Destiny 2 next year. It’s been too long since we’ve dunked on some guardians. The Destiny Sandbox has sped up in Destiny 2, so right now the team is validating that the mode still holds up with our new gameplay.”

In 2022, we’re going to see several new PVP modes, and while they won’t spoil them yet, but they should be interesting. Simply seeing Rift has apparently made fans of Destiny 2 happy. It’s also simply getting some open, honest communication on what’s going on, and that’s been sorely needed. There’s a lot of changes that need to happen, and he wants the PVP ecosystem improvements on the same scale as the Trials update. 

We’ll have to see what the future holds, but this writer knows quite a few PVP players who feel neglected by Destiny 2 as a whole, and hopefully, a 2021 update will help cure that.