Bungie continues to deliver on its promise to robustly support Destiny 2, even now nearly four years after the game launched. Not only has the online multiplayer shooter received routine content updates and major expansions, but Bungie continues to explore key technical features as well. Case in point, the announced addition of cross-platform play in 2021. In fact, Bungie is ready to start moving toward Destiny 2's cross-platform launch, with the first step being a newly confirmed beta.
Before Destiny 2 players start to worry about registrations or dropped keys, Bungie has confirmed that the upcoming crossplay beta will be open to everyone. That doesn't mean it won't have serious limitations, however. For one, the beta will run between just May 25 and May 27. It's very short, implying that Bungie is using this opportunity to gather data and test its system. Destiny 2 players can look at it like it's a teaser for what's to come.
Further, accessing crossplay is restricted to just a single playlist, temporarily altered for the beta. The Vanguard Strike playlist will match Destiny 2 players with others from the entire pool of platforms when players queue up. Supported platforms include PlayStation, Xbox, Steam, and Stadia, so everyone should be covered. There's no opt-in or any other requirements in order to be paired up with crossplay allies. It'll happen naturally just by selecting the correct playlist.
One key limitation is certain to be disappointing news to Destiny 2 players, unfortunately. Bungie is not going to be enabling the ability to invite friends from other platforms into a fireteam for the Vanguard Strike playlist. In other words, crossplay will only work through matchmaking with random players. Enabling crossplay invitations is a layer of functionality that Bungie isn't prepared to make available just yet. Considering invitations are what Destiny 2 players are most excited about, this is an understandably frustrating limitation. Bungie's got to start somewhere, though.
As a reward to encourage Destiny 2 players to participate in the beta, even without support for fireteam invitations, Bungie will be giving out a unique "Stars Crossed" emblem. In order to earn the emblem, Destiny 2 players will have to play through at least three strikes via the Vanguard Strikes crossplay playlist.
While the crossplay beta for Destiny 2 may be seriously limited for the time being, it won't be long before the feature is widely available and robustly supported for everyone. Crossplay is tentatively planned to launch alongside the next season in Destiny 2, which is expected to begin mid-August.
Destiny 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
