'Destiny' - Players Should Be Getting Their Own Micro With Expansion This Fall

The Destiny universe will get quite a bit larger this fall with the release of the game’s first fully-fledged expansion, The Taken King. The true scope of it is still unknown, but it will be the largest content addition to the base game since release, and had better be, given its $40 price tag. Three exotic weapons, Hawkmoon (Hand Cannon), Monte Carlo (Auto Rifle), and The Fourth Horseman (Shotgun) get with Destiny power leveling.

But there’s also the possibility that one console is going to get a smattering of new content besides that this fall. At last, Xbox One’s day will finally have come after a year’s worth of Sony Destiny exclusives jammed into the base game and two expansions.

At least that’s the hope.

Since the game’s launch, Activision and Bungie have partnered with Sony to ensure that PlayStation players get a bit more bang for their buck. New maps, new weapons, new armor, new strikes, new multiplayer maps. Almost nothing is off limits for exclusivity. Reading it all in one place is actually kind of overwhelming, as there’s content that’s been locked away on PlayStation I didn’t even know about. They had exclusive ships? What is this “Fourth Horseman” shotgun?

Anyway, the one thing all of this content has in common is that it has an asterisk next to “exclusive.” In small print, it says, “exclusive until at least Fall 2015,” a date we’re fast approaching.

Bungie has not confirmed that Destiny will indeed unleash all its PlayStation exclusive content on Xbox players this fall (hence the “at least”), but it would be torturous not to. I suppose Sony could throw them some extra money to screw Xbox players over for another year, but considering the cycle is about to begin all over again with more PS exclusive content in The Taken King, maybe they’ll agree that a year’s enough.

When you add it all up, the content that Xbox One players could see unlocked doesn’t add up to a full DLC package, but I wouldn’t call it insignificant either. Across the base game and The Dark Below and The House of Wolves DLCs, here’s what should be unlocked this fall.

• Two Strikes, Dust Palace and The Undying Mind
• Two multiplayer maps, Exodus Blue and Timekeeper
• Three class armor sets
• Three ships
• Three exotic weapons, Hawkmoon (Hand Cannon), Monte Carlo (Auto Rifle), and The Fourth Horseman (Shotgun)

Two Strikes is more than any one DLC has given Xbox players since launch now, and the other items aren’t anything to scoff at either. Hawkmoon is one of the best hand cannons in the game (according to PlayStation players), and the other weapons are far from bottom tier as well (at least Monte Carlo won’t be once Auto Rifles are fixed).

With the release of The House of Wolves, it seemed like the Sony deal may have been winding down. The only PlayStation exclusive bonus there was a single new multiplayer map, a welcome trade-off from the bounty of locked-away content Xbox players were normally forced to look at through glass. But now with The Taken King, it’s starting all over again. Sony players will get a new Strike, a new exotic Scout Rifle, a new multiplayer map, and three new armor sets. All “exclusive” until, you guessed it, Fall 2016.

It seems a bit weird to consider content that one console has been playing for up to a year “new” for Xbox players, but no matter how annoying the platform-exclusive content will be, that’s how it will feel come fall. Technically, using some twisted logic, by the time The Taken King rolls around, if all that content is unlocked, Xbox players will actually have more new content to consume than Sony players, though only because Sony players have been playing some of it for months already.