Destiny's taken another boost jump towards its inevitable free-to-play future with the release of new level boosters on the PlayStation Store. These optional £24.99 fast-track packs for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 promise to upgrade your Guardian to Level 25, while also offering a subclass boost and some weapon upgrade telemetries. Presumably the idea is that if your character's not up to scratch, you can cough up to get your Warlock, Titan, or Hunter on the right path.
There will be people outraged over this and perhaps rightly so, but boosters are not uncommon in the freemium business, which is clearly a model that Bungie's first-person shooter is hurtling towards. Perhaps the problem here is that, much like the Silver currency that it's supplementing, Destiny is currently still a boxed Blu-ray game – albeit one that's always evolving, as the recent addition of the Sparrow Racing League testifies.
It seems to us that the ex-Halo developer has ditched premium add-on packs such as House of Wolves and is opting to support its game year-round with events and microtransactions. Exactly how its community responds to this transition remains to be seen. We will say, though – if you can't be arsed to grind your Guardian up to Level 25 to the point where you're willing to pay, then what are you doing playing a game that's notorious for its repetition in the first place?
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 26
I think it is useless, is not that hard to level up a new character, but we all know that they are people that are going to buy those bosoters.
Still it is something that I like, if this means more free content ( even small updates like the racing ).
As for the people that complain, simply don't buy them.
Man, Destiny is leeching onto micro-transactions fast. You almost can see the boardroom meeting, "first year we lure em in, the second year when we are already established and a staple name, we ease in the micro-transactions."
Just say no, kids.
£25 to boost a character to 25 - £1 per level!!! Something that doesn't take that long in reality - its a joke!!
I really can't see anyone opting for this - certainly not at that price! I know there is the option not to buy - same with any micro-transactions but they still have a reflection on the game and peoples perception. Its bad enough that they have added the cosmetic items that are, in my mind, expensive for what they are. I also don't think that the added content these are supposed to be funding are worth buying these items for either.
I know its likely to divide the Destiny community, but I would rather see DLC similar in size, content etc to the Dark Below/House of Wolves and have to pay for it (as in yr1) than meaningless junk like the Halloween festivities and SRL.
I would rather they added 'emotes', sparrows etc as extra quest rewards too. I do feel that the way yr2 extra content (inc all the micro-transaction stuff) has really cheapened the overall experience and negatively impacted on my opinion of the game - even though I know I don't have to buy or participate in it.
Yeah, I don't think this is a terrible idea really, but clearly the price is wrong. £4.99 or so and it would be more reasonable - £24.99 is insane!
Its there if people want to do it. Its a short cut like in other games which you pay for. Microtransactions are fine in games its a way of recouping the massive costs it takes to develop games.
I think a symbol should be tagged to your character to identify who has paid for instant level 25. Might help when choosing your team?
Sadly Bungie lost the plot when the taken king was released. They dont really care about the opinions of people who play. Essentially the last update wiped out nearly any unique ad hard to acquire item i had collected over a year of playing. In any other industry that move would be illegal, Bungie lost my respect and micro transactions just go to prove its never been about the game to them, only money
£20 for the Dark Below - A "story", strikes, Raid
OR
£25 for a boost to level 25????
People were complaining £20 for the DLC was overpriced...so how on earth is £25 for NO ACTUAL CONTENT acceptable?!?!?
Yep a raid for £25 that they then made redundant to the game by making the rewards entirely worthless.....Good job bungie!
@dryrain It may cost a lot to develop and market games but if they do a good job, its not that difficult to become very profitable without the need to add micro-transactions. Destiny for example sold over $500m at retail, making it the biggest new franchise launch of all time and according to Activision (along with Hearthstone) has generated nearly one billion dollars for the company. Now I know there are a lot of people involved in making and marketing a game inc actors for voicing yet Destiny was profitable on day 1 easily recouping its development costs.
Companies like Activision are announcing quarterly profits that are unimaginable - well over a hundred billion dollars per quarter! I bet Bungie was seeing a good sized profit too over yr1 before adding in micro-transactions.
Wasn't there an article here when they first rolled out microtransactions for this game in which the producers promised they'd stay cosmetic-only?
Ah, yeah, here it is: https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2015/10/yep_destiny_is_getting_microtransactions
"Bungie's quick to point out that she'll never deal in anything that has an impact on the action, or your progress, however."
Posted Oct. 5th, 2015... that promise sure lasted real long!
25 f*cking pounds?!
So they take away the over priced DLC and replace them with overpriced Micro-Transactions? Good one Bungie!
"...towards its inevitable free-to-play future" - I never thought about this before. I'm done with this game. Absolutely ridiculous.
I've had fun, so have most of Destiny players. But micro transactions in full priced games which @BAMozzy has already posted is not right - they have made a huuuuge profit already (£250mil in profit).
People of the world you are not helping pay to develop the next big add on or game. You are paying shareholders a dividend. Get that into your thick heads and we will all shout with one voice. This profiteering for a number going up slightly in a database is ludicrous.
does seem they are pushing microtransactions, I did read this the other day though so hopefully some substantial content due next year:
http://www.ibtimes.com.au/bungie-hints-big-updates-slated-destiny-2016-1492526
I vote that we change "Microtransactions" to "megatransactions"
Honestly what the hell are Activision doing, they're literally taking the p*ss
Language, Sam! - get2sammyb
Pathetic, it's so easy to reach level 25, it would take a few evenings at most, smash the campaign, complete all the easy bounties and I'd suggest before you do any of that just run through the crucible for a few hours, it makes the campaign a lot easier being a few levels ahead.
selling cheat codes eh?
This is why I've stopped playing Destiny. The greed has taken over the game. And on the cosmetic items, dancing and whatnot affects the game as much as anything else. After doing a strike everyone celebrating is a lot of fun, and cosmetics items in general in that game are already too limited to be microtransactions. Plus, considering day-one players are asked to pay $135 for the game, the idea that anything would be locked away by a microtransactions is just plain insulting. The price for the boosters insane too. It's half the cost of the base game.
This is why I've stopped playing Destiny. The greed has taken over the game. And on the cosmetic items, dancing and whatnot affects the game as much as anything else. After doing a strike everyone celebrating is a lot of fun, and cosmetics items in general in that game are already too limited to be microtransactions. Plus, considering day-one players are asked to pay $135 for the game, the idea that anything would be locked away by a microtransactions is just plain insulting. The price for the boosters insane too. It's half the cost of the base game.
I don't get it and I pity any person who past this, I'd understand for a few pounds but not only does it not take that long to get to level 25. You'll also still have to play the game anyway to access all the areas, meaning you have spent your money on precisely nothing, not even saving time. Not to mention doesn't the game give you an item to get another character to level 20?
So let me get this straight, in a game which is about constant grinding, you can now pay a very large amount of money to skip what will end up being a tiny percentage of said grind. Genius
pay to win
I've had a lot of fun playing Destiny, and it's been great value for money compared to many games I buy. But I really don't like this turn of events. I can live with Silver for things like emotes, but if you can buy your way to a good level (no matter how easy it is to get to that level, and how ridiculous the price is for it), then you're now in uncomfortable territory for me in terms of what the future holds. Goodbye Destiny. It has been a blast. I'm off to play all those great games I missed (Batman, Witcher 3, Fallout 4 etc etc)
The thing is, TTK already comes with a"spark f light" that will level up a character to level 25. i have one but never needed it...new players would get one so this will be for people wanting to boost second or third character with less effort. Anyone that does has more money than sense.This is starting to look like a very slippery slope. If this is the future of Destiny then I won't be a part of it.
Screw Destiny 2 as well, microtransaction's are in the game fully now this is how they do it, the deal they offer now obviously isn't worth the money it's a ridiculous price for what you get infact but that's how thay get microtransactions into the game. The next offer will be much more reasonable and people will be like "that's more like it at least it's not a rip off" and then they are in. This has paved the way for MT's in Destiny 2 before the game is even out, I wouldn't buy say MGS5 2 even though I really enjoyed the game (93% complete) because of the microtransaction's in MGS5, why would I buy Destiny 2?
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