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This is how it starts, isn't it? Destiny's newest patch introduced a new, microtransaction-based service that allows you to buy cosmetic items with real money. With 18 fresh emotes on offer - which, to be fair, are actually pretty cool - it all seems rather harmless, but after mining the update files for further information, players have found references to far more questionable plans.

According to the discovered data, there's mention of items that buff weapon, armour, and material drop rates during the new King's Fall Raid, and an item that instantly levels up subclasses is also hinted at. What's more, a thread on the game's official forums, which was created with this information in mind, was locked. Obviously we can't say for sure why the thread in question was closed, but it's unsurprisingly lead to more unrest within the Destiny community.

Back when Bungie detailed the then incoming microtransactions, it stated that "you won't ever be forced to pluck an item off of [the vendor Tess'] shelf. You'll still receive updates to the game, and you won't lose a Crucible encounter or fail to clear a Raid because you didn't have the right Eververse Trading Company emote equipped." In other words, you'll never have to pay up for anything that changes how the actual game is played. But does the implementation of something like drop rate buffs have an impact on how the game's played? We'll leave you to ponder that one.

Fortunately, creative director Luke Smith has taken to Twitter and has attempted to calm the situation. "We aren't (nor are we planning) on selling consumables that buff King's Fall drop rates for Silver," he wrote, supposedly putting an end to the conversation. However, Smith's words don't change the fact that the above items were discovered, and that they clearly have some sort of meaning whether they're still relevant to the title or not.

Of course, Smith's tweet doesn't rule out the aforementioned subclass boosting consumable, so we suppose that we'll have to just wait and see how this all pans out. All in all, we're just hopeful that Bungie doesn't slowly but surely tack microtransactions onto the entire experience, because that's something that the all-new, positive Destiny really doesn't need.

[source db.destinytracker.com, via uk.ign.com]