Following its somewhat mild initial release in 2017, Destiny 2 showed everyone how to properly pull off a 180 with the launch of the rather phenomenal Forsaken expansion. Bungie, the developers, clearly got into the groove of things post-launch, and Shadowkeep is going to be their next flagship. This, we are very much excited about, and it's not only because of the new content. More precisely, we'll be playing Shadowkeep on Steam, which is particularly interesting.

Bungie has already started putting down the groundwork for the game's transfer to Steam on 1st of October. Players can now sign up to prepare their game data for the migration, in fact. Aside from the obvious boons of receiving an all-new expansion pack, some upsides of moving to Steam might not be quite so obvious. That's what we're here to discuss.

Steam is the most prominent video game platform on PC for a reason. It offers convenience and consolidation of a considerable percentage of most people's video game libraries, and it's a well-performing service overall. Same, however, could be said about Battle.net as well, which is where Destiny 2 originally launched, and where it is available until October. Primarily designed for Blizzard games, Battle.net does not have clear update announcements or achievements, however.

If Bungie weren't so vigilant with explaining their content updates in-game, we would rarely know that they even happened. This will no longer be the case when the game launches on Steam. Namely, Steam necessitates clear patch logs and update announcements. This, in turn, makes it obvious when something new is released. Not a major bonus, but an important one nonetheless.

Achievements are nothing to scoff at, either. With so many people hounding the elusive Seals in Destiny 2, you'd expect there'd be some achievement support in the launcher, too. Battle.net, however, does not have that, while Steam does. Expect for plenty of accounts to receive an explosion of rare achievements when veteran Destiny 2 players log in on the new platform.

Another less obvious upside of moving to Steam is that people will have the opportunity to purchase Destiny 2's premium Silver currency with Steam funds. For those who aren't in-the-know, you can farm game cards and special marketable items on Steam, and then make a small-albeit-noticeable profit off of that. In some cases, this means free Destiny 2 cosmetics. In other, even rarer cases, this means free Shadowkeep! It is entirely possible to farm the €34,99 you need to buy Shadowkeep by selling cards and items on Steam. It will take a long while, however, and you might need a bit of a knack for marketplace moderation, but still.

Finally, while it is possible to get a sense of how many players are playing Destiny 2 by using the Charlemagne bot on Discord, this doesn't track absolutely everybody on PC. This will change after the Steam migration, when all the player data will be made available for consideration. We've got a strong suspicion that Destiny 2 will make a leap for Steam's Top 10 most played list, far as concurrent player base goes. We'll see how that works out, however.

With New Light making a large amount of content available for everyone to play for free, and with Shadowkeep tugging a nostalgic note, there's no telling just how many Guardians will be taking down the Hive come October. One thing's for sure, however: the Steam migration will mark a huge quality-of-life update for Destiny 2's outer workings, and we're very much looking forward to that.