Finally... Bungie is adding Private PvP Matchmaking to Destiny. With that, they are also adding one of my most requested features, in game Clan Features. Detailed here the Roster page will now have seemingly have a few different sections. Clan, Game (Includes old Fireteam plus other in instance), and likely still Friends. Under the Game Roster your Fireteam will be Prioritized to the top of the list. Every Private Match will be hosted by the Clan of the Host who creates it. If that play is Unaffiliated with a Clan or his clan has less than 3 members and is therefor considered a Provisional Clan you will see a message saying No Clan Affiliation at the top. Clan Roster may be unavailable during Maintenance periods though. Now on to the really good stuff.

Here is the article detailing Private Matches. Listed below is all of the information from that article in case you just want to read it here. All owners of Destiny DO have access to Private Matches, confirmed on the Twitch stream, regardless of whether or not they purchase Rise of Iron or not, besides the few caveats listed below.

To create a Private Match lobby, the Fireteam leader must open the Director in Orbit, select the Crucible, then select the Private Match node. This will then allow the Fireteam leader to select their desired match settings under the new "Game Options" menu.

PLEASE NOTE: This page may be revised at the release of Destiny: Rise of Iron. Please visit this page again on September 20th, 2016 when Destiny: Rise of Iron is available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox ONE for more information.

Game Options

This is where the Fireteam leader of the Private Match lobby creates the Private Match that will be played. Options that may be selected are:

In addition to these Game Options, the following options will only be available determined by the currently selected Map.

Once all desired Game Options have been selected, press Launch to begin the Private Match.While all players will have the ability to create and play Private Matches, players who do not own Destiny: Rise of Iron will not be able to play Supremacy game types, as well as access the Floating Gardens, Icarus, Last Exit, or Skyline Crucible Maps.

Switching Teams

In Private Matches, players have the ability to freely switch teams between Alpha and Bravo Team. This can be done while in Orbit prior to launching a Private Match, or while alive after a Private Match has started. To switch teams, perform the following:

In a Private Match, players may switch to a team that is already full(6 players) only if a player from each team initiates a team switch at the same time. In this instance, players have a 15 second window to successfully switch teams with each other before the team switch results in failure.

When switching teams in a Private Match, the player who switches teams will die immediately, and their personal score will be reset to zero. Their contribution to the overall team score, however, will not be deducted.

Voice Channel

In Private Matches, players may switch between the Team and Fireteam Voice Channels. The Team Voice Channel will only allow you to communicate with other players in your immediate team(ex: Alpha Team). The Fireteam Voice Channel will enable every player in a Private Match lobby to communicate directly. In Orbit, Voice Channels are disabled, and every player in the Private Match lobby can speak freely. Once the Private Match has been launched, each team will be defaulted to the Team Voice Channels.Regardless of which Voice Channel is selected, players cannot communicate with other players in their lobby who are not in the same Voice Channel. For example: A teammate in the Fireteam Voice Channel cannot communicate with team members who have only opted to be in the Team Voice Channel, and vice versa.

Vital Information

Listed below is additional information which players should know when participating in Private Matches.

Private matchmaking will have a major impact on PvP in Destiny, it's probably the largest addition to PvP since launch. This opens up Destiny as an ESport finally and brings with it Bungie's own Competition License. This is a set of rules and guidelines Bungie has set forth on how to have officially licensed tournaments. Although they do issue this statement about said tournaments, "If you follow the above conditions, you may proceed with your event without further license from Bungie. A competition that is being operated under the above license is neither officially supported nor endorsed by Bungie and you must notify the participants of this fact." But this does allow them to choose to promote your tournaments if they so choose to and for you to use Bungie logo's and such, and allow you to stream said Tournaments in places like Twitch.tv. Seems like a pretty cool feature and it will be cool to see how it plays out.

After going so long without them, I honestly didn't think they add private matches to this iteration of the game. I figured it would be a Destiny 2 thing. Nevertheless, it's great news.

I'm actually planning on setting up a Giant Bomb community PVP tournament sometime after RoI launches, if there's enough interest.

@ll_exile_ll: That would be awesome. I know we had talked about this in the past but with the changes to Clans we all may also want to do some restructuring to the Giantbomb Clans. I am thinking strongly about going through Lincoln Force NA Central and again removing any inactive players next month before Rise of Iron and renaming the Clan. Not sure to what, but I'll probably have some kind of vote by the people left active in the clan. This may be a good time to do recruiting and try to revitalize the Clan structures here at Giantbomb since there are honestly only 3 Clans that are even moderately active with Destiny anymore, and none of those 3 are the official Lincoln Force Groups. I'd like all of the clans to be linked in some way, likely by that Gianbomb Clans Alliance we setup. It's definitely something to think about the closer we get to Rise of Iron. But I love the idea of Giantbomb PvP tournaments. That sounds like a ton of fun. I just can't wait for the sticks and stones games of Gunslingers only with only Knives and Tripmine kills allowed and you have to be wearing min armor build. That weird stuff will be awesome.

It's cool this is getting added but I really want something that's a little more customizable. Not to the extent of a Halo Forge mode, but setting spawn times of heavy/special ammo, making it a Mayhem match, or even allowing players to equip all exotic weapons would be fun for my friends and I.

@dispossession: They talked about that kind of stuff on stream. That is something they want to add to it in the future. It was a big point that they just wanted to get a solidly working foundation for private matches down before they started adding features like that the community would be requesting. I think this is a great start though. This at least allows us to go in and design Gentleman's rules games with Friends. And those can be some of the funnest games around. I would like it if they wouldn't limit it to 6v1 so you could do something like tag with 11v1 and if that 1 kills you, you have to hunt with them. Hunters use Shotguns/Melee/Grenades and Hunted can only use Highest Impact Hand Cannons like The First Curse or Judith-D. That's not really a mode Bungie could bring to Destiny though, because of the loadout requirements. But if nothing else out first 6v6 Elimination game is going to be insane. I'm looking forward to seeing the pure chaos that comes from that alone.

@hestilllives19: I didn't watch the stream so I didn't hear that piece of information, so that's good to know. I agree with what you're saying, there's still going be some fun times with that type of mode, because I remember doing melee only, throwing knives only, etc, back in the MW2 days and those were some of the funnest online times I ever had. I guess I'm always going to feel like Bungie can do so much more to this game then what they are currently doing, but that's for another thread.