The amazing news that came out of Bungie yesterday was that "The Final Shape," the expansion that will climax the decade-long saga, will add an entirely new subclass, allowing Guardians to mix and match the powers of all existing subclasses! (My emphasis here is to reflect how excited this excited our resident Guardian (aka PC Gamer Brand Director Tim Clark).)

But once the shock wore off a bit, something odd happened. Because a month earlier, someone on Reddit had predicted that a new subclass would be created.

Of course, the community is curious as to what else the account of this would-be leaker has said. Redditor 32638272187 (their chosen handle) said that Destiny 3 is being developed under the codename Payback and that the current class structure of Titans, Hunters, and Warlocks will be scrapped, with each having its own unique subclass and Instead, any character will be able to spec into any ability, allowing for the freedom to mix and match that is currently the daydream of Destiny fans.

This very significant change seems justified by the fact that Destiny lore fragments reveal that Hunters learned the teleportation skill "Blink" from Warlocks (though they don't like to talk about it). Also, while mixing light and dark is new, as in Prism, there are plenty of lore items where the Guardian combos quickly between light powers.

Of course, we don't usually pay much attention to Reddit rumors, but this time the specificity of the subclass information raised eyebrows: a month ago there was a leak that a new system called Prism was coming to Destiny 2, allowing players to mix and match abilities of different subclasses It stated that players would be able to mix and match abilities of different subclasses. This is almost identical to what was revealed in yesterday's Final Shape livestream: the new Prismatic subclass will allow players to choose abilities from the Light and Dark subclasses as they wish.

The Prismatic subclass reveal is, as Brandmaster Clark puts it, "the biggest need drop imaginable," and the fact that 32638272187 nailed such intensive information perfectly shows that Destiny fans are Destiny 3 calls suddenly got a lot of attention.

The possibility that work on Destiny 3 is underway was mentioned in a live stream of "The Final Shape" by Executive Creative Director Luke Smith, who said that after the forces of "The Witness" were defeated, Bungie "will be Destiny 2 and see what comes next," he said. Since we already know that three additional episodes are planned for Destiny 2, the AND BEYOND part must really refer to something else entirely.

To some extent, this seems as obvious as the rising sun: Destiny 2 has been out for seven years, and The Final Shape has been the backbone of the entire series' story so far from the beginning, as the conclusion to the "light and dark" saga, It has been of considerable importance. And despite Bungie's recent woes, "Destiny" remains a hugely popular and tremendously valuable property.

Interestingly, until last year, the studio was very shy about questions regarding a third installment, which is not surprising given how rocky the transition from "D1" to "D2" was. However, given last year's layoffs, the cancellation of the Matter project, and the Japanese publisher's apparent dissatisfaction with Bungie's upper management, it certainly seems likely.

The fact is that Destiny 2 remains Bungie's bread and butter, and not only does it need the success of The Final Shape, but the franchise needs to continue to thrive in the future for the studio to remain viable. So getting it right is clearly the focus right now. But my reading of the leaks, if they are accurate, suggests that "Destiny 3" may be much further along than anyone thinks.