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As 'Destiny 2' On PC Nears, PS4 And Xbox One Cross-Save Is A Must

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Destiny 2 is about to hit PC on October 24th. Unfortunately, it couldn’t launch at the same time as the console version, so now players have to make a choice. Do they pick up the PC version and start over, or do they keep plugging away at their console characters indefinitely? Some may do both, others may have waited until the PC release to pick up the game at all.

But what if console players didn’t have to make the choice of abandoning their current crop or juggling 4-6 characters a time? This is where once again, cross-save comes into play.

Bungie has not announced plans for cross-save, which would allow players to use the same Guardians on different platforms, specifically in this case between Xbox One/PS4 and PC. This is different than cross-play, which would have console and PC players playing together/against each other, while technically possible, is not great for an FPS where PC players would likely have the advantage in modes like Crucible or Trials.

But cross-save is a different matter altogether. I cannot overstate enough just how pumped I was about the PC beta earlier this summer. I thought Destiny 2 on PC might be fine, if not a little weird, absent a controller, but instead it was fantastic. The game looked and controlled better and more fluidly than the console version by far, thanks in part to its increased framerate. It was at that moment that I genuinely might have picked PC as my primary Destiny 2 platform, given how great it played.

Bungie

That was literally not an option for me, however. Due to my job and the fact that of course I’m going to play Destiny 2 the day it comes out, I had to pick it up on console, meaning that PC is a secondary platform at best. I will still play the PC version, but I know many players won’t be able to justify either A) another $60 purchase or B) the time it will take to level and gear up entirely new characters.

I feel like Bungie will be leaving a lot of money on the table if they don’t have cross-save in the PC version. I know that a lot of people would spend that $60 to buy another copy if it meant they could jump back and forth between the same characters on different platforms. But starting over, though something to do and a sort-of new experience on PC, will not be enough for many to pick it up. So that leaves the die-hards that are down with having 4-6 characters, repeating classes, or those who have waited to get the game on PC. Given the console playerbase, I’m not sure how large that group will be.

I get the risks of cross-save, like if there’s some sort of hack or exploit that gives a player infinite resources or gear, that could translate to the console economy even if there’s no cross-play where PC cheats might affect console gameplay. But I think it’s worth the risk. There’s just too much utility in allowing characters to be ported over from one platform to the other to ignore it, but that seems like exactly the path we’re on.

The problem is that if Destiny 2 on PC doesn’t launch with cross-save, it will probably never get it. Down the road, players will have already built up new characters on PC, and instituting cross-save would mean they’d probably have to kill them in order to use their console characters, which would be less than ideal.

Still, I hope through some miracle we get this. Destiny 2 on PC should be wonderful, but it would be even better if I could use the three characters I’ve already spent 100 hours building.

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