Destiny 2: The Final Shape Raid Launch Time And Everything We Know
Bungie has revealed when its new raid activity will go live in The Final Shape, and surprisingly, players will be able to dive into this event much sooner than anticipated. Here’s a look at everything we know so far about the pinnacle PvE activity.
Destiny 2: The Final Shape Raid release date and time
The Final Shape raid will officially launch on June 7, 2024 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. This is a lot earlier when compared to previous raid release dates, as Bungie typically launches one of these activities a full week and a half after an expansion is released. This date will give you just three days to get ready, a challenging prospect as The Final Shape will introduce the Prism subclass and a new faction to battle inside of the Traveler, the Dread.
Destiny 2: The Final Shape Raid story details
Beyond the release date confirmation, Bungie is remaining tight-lipped on the story for its new raid. Raids usually introduce new threats to Destiny 2 in the aftermath of the campaign, and with The Final Shape teasing a final showdown with The Witness, it’ll be interesting to see which antagonist is waiting for players at the end of the storyline to the Light and Darkness saga. There are several possibilities here, as this raid could take a page out of The Taken King expansion and pit players against The Witness in its ultimate form, similar to how Oryx was defeated in the Ascendant Realm when he was at the height of his power.
Xivu Arath is another wildcard who could be the star of this raid, as this dangerous loose thread has been lurking in the shadows ever since she was severed from her Throne World at the end of Season of the Witch. The road map for Destiny 2’s episodes has also hinted at the Hive god of war appearing to menace players after The Final Shape.
Destiny 2: The Final Shape Raid rewards
Bungie hasn’t revealed the rewards available for this event yet, but if it follows the tradition of previous raids, you can expect exclusive weapons, armor, and Exotics from completing runs of the raid.
Destiny 2: The Final Shape raid – How to access
Like The Final Shape, the raid is a paid piece of content in Destiny 2. It can be accessed by purchasing the expansion.
Destiny 2: The Final Shape Raid clan updates
There’ll be several quality-of-life updates in The Final Shape, including improvements designed to reinvigorate the clan system in Destiny 2. Hawthorne will be receiving a vendor reputation track and Guardians can earn clan reputation by completing activities. Clan bounties are also getting overhauled, and there will be two new bounty types available–one for seasonal content and one for dungeons–and all clan bounties will also grant some clan reputation. For established teams, it could be worth paying a visit to Hawthorne to stack up on bounties before the venture into the raid.
Additionally, clan perks are being refreshed, and players will get discounted Raid Banners, Exotic engrams, and more each week when they do a fresh raid run.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes Sequel In The Works Despite Creator’s Death
Rabbit & Bear Studios has revealed it will work on a sequel to Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes despite the death of its creator, Yoshitaka Murayama, back in February.
In a Reddit AMA thread, the developer confirmed that it is moving forward with a sequel, saying, “It is very sad that Murayama is not with us anymore, but we have discussed many things with him. [We] hope we will be able to carry on Murayama’s legacy, and [we] always want to treasure his last work. [We] hope many people will support this game.”
Murayama was also the scenario writer for Eiyuden Chronicle, and was battling an ongoing illness that ended with his death on February 6. He joined the games industry back in 1992 starting with Konami as a quality assurance tester. He eventually became producer, writer, and director of the first three games in the Suikoden series.
After leaving Konami, he started his own company called Blue Moon Studio in 2005 and released 10,000 Bullets. He also worked with Atlus on 2017’s The Alliance Alive. He eventually joined Rabbit & Bear Studios to work on Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes and its prequel, Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising, the latter of which was released in 2022.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes launches on April 23 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. It will also be available on Xbox Game Pass when it’s released.
Here’s All The Destiny 2: Into The Light Content Leaving In June
In the lead-up to The Final Shape, Bungie has detailed which parts of Into The Light will remain after June 3 and which parts of it will be going away.
First up, the new raid boss gauntlet Pantheon will be exiting Destiny 2 in June. This mode will be available starting April 30 and allows players to earn a variety of rare emblems that were previously only available in Contest Raids. Bungie says Pantheon was always intended to be a time-limited event, and this means players will only have a month to earn the Brave title and other rewards from this mode.
As previously mentioned by Bungie in a livestream, the limited-edition variants of the Brave arsenal weapons will only be available to earn until June 3. If you’re looking to take on that challenge, here’s how you can unlock The Mountaintop and The Recluse. Other parts of Into The Light you can wave goodbye to include the Hall of Champions social space, the Arcite 99-40 quests, armor chests, and weapon attunement.
Currently, players can attune these popular weapons and get “god rolls” on them with sought-after weapon perks. Once the expansion drops, it’ll be much harder to get optimal rolls once this feature is no longer available.
“We really like the attunement experience so far, and while it won’t be available right at the launch of The Final Shape, we’re already working on bringing back a new attunement experience for Brave weapons sometime during Echoes,” Bungie said.
The good news is that a lot of good stuff will still be available once The Final Shape launches. The Onslaught horde mode will be sticking around as a dedicated playlist, regular Brave Arsenal weapon rewards can still be earned from it, and Bungie has plans to introduce new ways to unlock the popular Parade Armor sets and the Superblack shader.
The reprised Exotic missions will also remain, and they’ll be moved to the Legends tab. The Exotic weapons and catalyst rewards from these missions will also still be available to earn from their respective vendors.
Netflix Subscribers Surge To 270 Million
In the streaming realm, Netflix is still the king of the mountain by a wide margin. But even Netflix didn’t predict that it would hit 270 million subscribers this financial quarter. Via Variety, Netflix has released its report for the first quarter of 2024, which reveals that the streamer added 9.33 million subscribers through March 31 to reach approximately 269.60. That’s well above the 3.93 million subscribers that Netflix was predicted to add in the same period.
How did Netflix so wildly exceed those expectations? Cracking down on accounts sharing passwords likely helped. Netflix’s early 2024 lineup also had some new breakout hits, including Avatar: The Last Airbender, 3 Body Problem, The Gentlemen, Fool Me Once, Griselda, and Damsel. Netflix’s consistent flow of original movies and TV series, as well as content on loan from other studios, is another one of the primary reasons why no other streamer has managed to catch up.
Additionally, Netflix revealed that it intends to stop reporting its quarterly subscription totals starting in 2025. This caught some industry observers by surprise, because the company’s subscriber numbers have been used to push Netflix’s stock prices even higher. However, Netflix has also seen its stock prices fall during quarters when its subscriber numbers have gone down. The decision to withhold those numbers suggests that Netflix anticipates another dip in subscribers at some point in the future, and the company wants to avoid another concurrent drop in its stock price.
This news comes after a report that Netflix wants to make original movies that are “better, cheaper, and less frequent” than in the past. Netflix is also reportedly moving away from massive upfront payments to established stars and creators. What that means for Netflix’s future as a movie and TV studio remains to be seen.
Breaking Bad’s Giancarlo Esposito Considered A Hit On Himself For Insurance Money
Between Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, The Mandalorian, and even the short-lived Revolution, Giancarlo Esposito has positioned himself as an in-demand actor who excels at playing villains. However, he didn’t always enjoy such good fortune in his career. During a recent appearance on SiriusXM’s Jim & Sam, Esposito recalled a time in 2008 when he was near bankruptcy and so desperate for a way out that he considered placing a hit on himself to provide for his family with the insurance money.
“My way out in my brain was: ‘Hey, do you get life insurance if someone commits suicide? Do they get the bread?’ My wife had no idea why I was asking this stuff,” recalled Esposito via Variety. “I started scheming. If I got somebody to knock me off, death by misadventure, [my kids] would get the insurance. I had four kids. I wanted them to have a life. It was a hard moment in time. I literally thought of self-annihilation so they could survive. That’s how low I was.”
“That was the first inkling that there was a way out, but I wouldn’t be here to be available to my kids,” continued Esposito. “Then I started to think that’s not viable because the pain I would cause them would be lifelong, and there’d be lifelong trauma that would just extend the generational trauma I’m trying to move away from. The light at the end of the tunnel was Breaking Bad.”
Esposito’s role as Gus Fring on both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul was a transformational moment for his standing in Hollywood, and he’s been constantly working ever since. Ironically, Esposito had a starring role in 2017’s The Show, a movie in which he played a desperate man, Mason Washington, who contemplates committing suicide on a live TV show in order to provide for his family. In case of art imitating life, Mason also chooses to survive.
Parish, Esposito’s new drama series, is currently airing Sunday nights on AMC.
State Of Decay 2, More Xbox Cloud Games Getting Mouse And Keyboard Support
Xbox Insiders can now try to survive the zombie apocalypse with a mouse and keyboard for State of Decay 2 on Xbox Cloud Gaming. The open-world survival title is one of 14 games getting the additional input support on the service.
Spotted by Windows Central, other notable games also receiving mouse and keyboard support on Xbox Cloud include Quake 2, Terraria, and Slime Rancher 2. Keep in mind that so far this added functionality is only “for users enrolled in the PC Gaming Preview,” per the Xbox Support page.
It was almost two years ago when Microsoft officially announced mouse and keyboard support was on the way for Xbox Cloud Gaming. This is the second wave of titles, as last month introduced the feature to games like Sea of Thieves, Halo Infinite, and Fortnite. Eventually, the idea is that mouse and keyboard can be used while playing these titles on the cloud on devices like your smartphone or TV, if desired.
Xbox Cloud Gaming is a bonus that’s part of an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription. New Xbox Cloud games come to the service regularly. For example, a majority of the seven games coming to Game Pass this month will be available on the cloud, such as Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes.
Below is a full list of the new games getting mouse and keyboard support on Xbox Cloud Gaming:
- Cities: Skylines – Mayor’s Edition
- Cities: Skylines – Remastered
- House Flipper
- Inkulinati (Game Preview)
- Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord
- Norco
- Pikuniku
- Quake
- Quake 2
- Slime Rancher 2
- State of Decay 2
- Terraria
- The Sims 4
- Valheim (Game Preview)