Destiny Introduces New Game Mode, Doubles

A new multiplayer mode has been added to Destiny, which emphasises smaller teams and traditional firearms.

Called Doubles Skirmish and found on the game's Crucible hub, the mode pits two teams of two players against each other in an old-school deathmatch.

In order to maintain its focus on traditional gunplay, level advantages are disabled and there's a once-per-match limit to heavy ammo drops. The focus is on eliminating both opponents, while also preventing them from reviving each other.

Bungie says that Doubles is the first example of its multiplayer experiments, suggesting that more are on the way. The mode's design lead, Lars Bakken, describes Doubles as "a slower burn with more explosive pockets."

He adds: "Your Supers will come back more slowly because you're not getting as many actions per minute as you would in a game of Control. The goal here was about taking the rules we already have and mixing them up to create a fresh experience. Each player has the full weight of winning or losing placed squarely on their shoulders and nobody to blame but themselves... or their teammate. No pressure."

Meanwhile, in its latest weekly blog post, Bungie adds that the exotic sniper rifle, called Ice Breaker, was made available to buy at the game's Tower hub. The in-game merchant Xur managed to sell 1.1 million of the highly sought-after guns.