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Destiny: Rise of Iron, the game's next expansion, will not be released on PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, publisher Activision announced today.
Rise of Iron will be the first Destiny expansion to be available only on current-generation consoles; today's announcement confirms a leak from earlier this week. The base game and its first three add-ons — The Dark Below, House of Wolves and The Taken King — were all released on PS3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Activision said earlier this year that a full sequel to Destiny is scheduled to launch in 2017.
Destiny developer Bungie will release Rise of Iron Sept. 20 on PS4 and Xbox One for $29.99, a price that suggests the add-on's size will be somewhere between those of House of Wolves and The Taken King. In order to play Rise of Iron, players will need to own Destiny and The Taken King. Head here for more details on the expansion; you can also watch the reveal trailer below.
Update: Bungie offered some further details on the future of Destiny in a blog post published after today's Rise of Iron reveal livestream. The studio said it will "continue to support players who elect not to upgrade their console hardware," although the company is forking the development of Destiny into current-generation and last-generation versions.
Since the launch of Destiny in September 2014, players have been able to share character progress across both generations in the same console family (PS3/PS4 or Xbox 360/One). However, starting in August, Guardians will "progress separately on two parallel paths," according to an explanatory image from Bungie:
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Last-generation Destiny players who upgrade to a PS4 or Xbox One after August will be able to port their existing characters to their new console, although only within the Sony or Microsoft ecosystems. While Rise of Iron won't be released on PS3 or Xbox 360, it's unclear at this point if Bungie will continue to release patches and free content updates on the older consoles.
