Even the freshly minted Bungie, acquired by Sony for over $3 billion, is feeling the economic pinch it appears. Buried among a frankly frightening deluge of information, the legendary developer revealed that it’ll be bumping the price of its Season Passes moving forwards. Beginning with Season 21, you’ll have to pay 1,200 Silver for the standard Season Pass and 2,200 Silver for the Season Pass including 10 ranks. The previous price was 1,000 Silver and 2,000 Silver respectively.
You can buy 1,100 Silver for £8.49/$9.99 and 2,300 Silver for £16.79/$19.99, so in real-world money terms this isn’t the biggest change. It’s also worth noting that if you buy Destiny 2: Lightfall, you’ll get access to the current Season Pass live at the point of purchase free of charge, and that’s not changing. Similarly, if you already own the Annual Pass, you’ll obviously get full access to all the seasons through Season 23 at no extra charge.
Still, it’s not an amazing look from the developer, especially when it apologised for the state of Lightfall less than a month ago. To be fair to Bungie, the community’s had a surprisingly measured response to this news, perhaps because the price increase isn’t enormous overall. One poster on Reddit did move to reassure fellow fans, though: “Don’t worry guys, they’re a small indie company – they need more money.”
Indeed.
[source bungie.net]
Comments 49
If a person pays for this rubbish at all then I have no sympathy. Although, in fairness, many will be kids who aren’t old enough to know any better as they’ve grown up with it.
Gotta keep the lights on, not ideal but small change if you’re a big Destiny fan.
How crafty is that? The lowest priced silver (1100) is not enough to get the cheapest battle pass but the higher priced silver is enough to get the higher price battle pass 🤣
So if I wanted the cheaper battle pass for 1200 silver how would I do that without buying the 2300 silver bundle.
@UltimateOtaku91 Haha, yeah I noticed that and thought it was a bit dodgy too! You end up in a situation where you have to buy extra Silver, and then it's just sitting in your account.
Bungie need to show they’re next game already I’m so tried of Destiny 2. Hopefully Bungie next game get revealed at Sony next showcase.
@UltimateOtaku91 well, I guess they value the battle pass at £16.79 really. And you then have some “silver change” to buy.. I don’t know, what do you buy with silver in Destiny now?
Yeeeesh. May have been smarter to do an excuse lined price increase AFTER a far better content update than what Lightfall turned out to be....
@kyleforrester87 I belive it's just cosmetics and weapon skins (ornaments), and if they do value their battle pass at that price then that's absurd. That would be one of if not the most expensive battle pass around, and from my experience from when I used to play it's definitely not worth it, was mainly in game materials. But I haven't played in over a year so maybe it's changed.
@UltimateOtaku91 ah. Hard got me to comment really, I have even less idea if it’s worth it - haven’t played since, I dunno. 6 months after D2 dropped or something. I see what you mean about the pricing though. Just trying to look at it with less cynicism since it’s such an easy target. You almost think.. no, it can’t be that.
Eh it would happen eventually. Just a bad look after how awful the latest expansion and season was.
Season of the Deep needs to knock it out of the park.
I wish customers would kill the games that do this crap.
I opted out years ago.
@UltimateOtaku91 that's an awful practice straight from F2P mobile games: none of the currency bundles fit just right for buying one thing, you are always left with some spare change. These "extra" leftovers make it easier to buy something next. No need to say that after buying next item/bundle/season pass/etc. you are left with a next portion of spare change... Eternal circle of filthy thoughts of buying something more. Shame this practice came to big AAA games.
I love the fact that they removed a lot of content from Destiny 2. More games should do that! Also, they should keep increasing the prices. It's a game not a charity after all.
I honestly feel without the Bungie name, people would've thrown in the towel on Destiny a long time ago. There's been so much BS or odd decisions that I'm surprised more people haven't been like "okay that's enough, I'm done"
Good thing they were not acquired by a market leader that would then turn around and increase prices…. Oh…
At this point I genuinely think the games industry needs a crash. It's past time.
Sony are just so damn greedy these days.
@NEStalgia Well Phil was doing his part to crash his part of it today. 😂
Current industry is kind of nuts though.
Sell games for $60
Convince fans free-to-start games with paid micro transactions are trash
Sell games for $60 with $40 season passes 🤑
Or my new favorite, free to play games that require you to pay $30 or more to play.🙄
Microsoft shouldn’t throw in the towel yet, Sony may self destruct with those 10 live service games.😝
@rjejr Yeah, I was kinda of ripping Phil earlier after the red fall fiasco, then I saw this and the obvious sleaze of pricing the currency packs so you have to buy deluxe and suddenly red fall looks awesome
As someone who's spent over 3500 hours on this franchise over the last 8 years, being a Destiny fan really is like an abusive relationship. Bungie has been a scummy company for a while now and the game has become very predatory, but I just keep coming back no matter what. Hell, I got scammed 50€ by buying Lightfall, and no matter what I think right now their excellent marketing machine will make me buy Final shape as well. Guess excellent game mechanics really do help.
Removed - inappropriate
@NEStalgia I looked up the “Redfall fiasco” which I thought was just the game being 30FPS at launch but then I got sucked down the SCOTUS rabbit hole. Do you have any billionaire friends giving you millions of $ you can introduce me too? Maybe around a nice fire pit.🤷🏻♂️
I just spent $35 on ingredients to make tacos 🌮 i miss when things was cheaper 😕
@Grimwood $16 for groundbeef $10 for lettuce tomatoes onions peppers $9 for cheese salsa and tortillas
@NEStalgia I was thinking the same earlier. I think the industry is not only getting too expensive but also uninspired in what they create. Maybe a crash would be a good thing.
@NEStalgia The irony is Redfall was going to be a live service game too at one point. Lol Part of me wishes they kept it that way just to add more fuel to the fire of it being a terrible game.
@Phornix lol yeah, it really comes from when Bethesda was a sinking ship and trying to monetize everything to the hilt to stay afloat.... They removed the monetization but it only goes to show how dull the core design of gaas games is. The fun isn't the game, it's the risk, like gambling. Take the mtx out and you're left with the uninspired game.
Maybe they can sell "canvas" totes to make up for it!
@rjejr I don't even have billionaire enemies! 😂
When did sony buy Bongie? What year is it? Did I stroke?
The cheek. Absolute scummy behaviour, how do they justify the fact you can’t actually buy the lower priced pass, you will have to buy extra silver you don’t even want? I jumped in to play Lightfall but once I’m done, think I’m dropping this. Bungee have a brilliant game at its core, mechanically, but some of the things they do reek of laziness and a lack of care for their community.
@thefourfoldroot1 Way more adults are buying these things than you realize.
The funny thing is most people were blaming Activision for there horrible business model. But since the have split from Activision Bungie have got a lot worse scarily Activision were reigning them in!
@Shad361
Yes, I guess, unfortunately, it’s been around long enough that there are adults who have never known any better. This is why publishers push ahead with demonstrably unpopular things like Microtransactions and now NFTs, because they know they only need to hold out for 16 years or so and they start being able to sell to those who just consider such things normal.
The consumer friendly thing to do here would either be:
1. make it so that you can just buy a season with actual money and not silver
2. raise the minimum amount of silver you can buy to 1,200
But then again, I'm not a multi-million dollar company, so what the f**k do I know?
Despite being bought by Sony or because they were bought by Sony?
@NEStalgia That's ok, I think you have a billion enemies between here and NL.😂
@rjejr Mostly here, I think all my NL enemies aged out a long time ago.
@thefourfoldroot1 Yes, that's really the biggest part why gaming is probably the most messed up and hostile industry this side of gambling. Their customers are children who will believe and accept anything, and lack of impulse control, high discretionary spending for the older kids, and parental guilt for the younger ones, means impatience will justify any price, knowing that once you raise the kids on that, it will last through adulthood, and once they're locked you can get to working over the next generation.
Honestly I feel I would be much more into Destiny if it wasn’t for things like this like I’m gonna be honest I don’t know what these passes even get you? Is it like a Battle Pass like Halo Infinite where it’s just skins? Or is story locked behind it? Honest to god I think Destiny might have the richest lore and the coolest stuff for a live service right behind FFXIV but it always feels way harder to understand and get into then any other contemporary.
@NEStalgia Yeah there ain't too many names I recognize left. Maybe in the forums but I don't go in there unless I need something, like once every 4 or 5 years.
@rjejr Yeah, I almost never go there anymore. Too many regulars moved on, and the new ones I don't know, and most of the ones I did know are also here and at Pure, so it isn't the same. Plus the news there is....eugh. Very different community vs when Switch launched sadly. I'll probably end up back there in the next hardware hype cycle, but the community is definitely a very different one right now and I can't even get myself to jump in on totk topics. Feels more twitter-like with just a cacophony of people talking into the void than the community feel it used to have and still exists here and pure, just on account of Switch's audience overall.
@NEStalgia I've tried to go on Pure while I had Gamepass on PC and well, neither time went very well. 😝
NL could be interesting between the Switch 2 announcement
and launch, but if it's just really a Switch 2, like a PS5, well, what is there to talk about really? There will be 1 new 3D Mario game then another 5 years before the next Zelda. And Mario Kart and SSB ports. 🤷♂️
@rjejr LOL, yeah, Nintendo has a better release cadence than PS and XB these days, but, a lot of what they're selling feels minimalist or overpriced. I still like the Switch, but it failed to hit that "favorite console" status like I imagined it would. The games are there, but for me personally it lost momentum in the years of WiiU ports and then that hideous ACNH travesty.
Eh, Pure is a good community, not so different than Push, just smaller, there's the handful of XB fanboys, the handful of ponies from here that just go there to antagonize people, and mostly just endless non-news so we all end up talking about random things anyway if it's not an ABK related article
Deleted Destiny 2 last week after being back for a good solid few months. Wasn't shelling out for Lightfall and was getting bored with the daily grind again. This news kinda justifies my decision in a way.
@NEStalgia I think Pure coming back - I remember when their old Xbox site shut down (at least I think I do) - was the deathknell for Xbox. Well maybe Phil will quit and then you'll have something to talk about. I could see Phil running for a senate seat b/c I really don't like him, always seemed like a meth dealer to me. Better than several we have now. 😝
ACNH wasn't a travesty, it was a pandemic distraction. I played it for over 500 hours. Can't recall any of it, but all I can recall about video games these days is bugs and review bombing, industry really is broken.
@rjejr Lol I don't dislike him, so idk about that. He's made some mistakes and keeps saying to keep waiting it's right around the corner, but always generally liked him and thought he was a good gaming leader. Too soft though for the current hardball.
Acnh was beyond horrible. It was basically a mobile game without the mtx that captivated the mobile casual crowd with nothing but a tedious resource grind with cool down timers. It's genshin but without the actual missions. It's such a massive downgrade from the previous series. To me the game basically ended after you build all the houses and the "campaign" ends. The rest is boring resource grinds for cosmetics with little else of a game in there. I'm genuinely angry consumers made it a success and likely destroyed the series forever.
Wtf did you do for 500 hours in there? There was nothing to do but wait for the cool down to grind more materials to craft more cosmetics you can't put anywhere. If I wanted to just grind crafting materials I'd play more MMOs which does it better with far more to it.
I remember speaking up about why Multiplayer Games & GAAS were bad for a gaming a few years back, and I was bombarded with hate, but hey "PlayStation needs more Multiplayer Games", not seeming to realize the downside of that statement.
I don't feel like being a total jerk and say 'I told you so', but... my concerns are becoming more and more valid by the year.
@NEStalgia Not exactly sure what I did for 500 hours in ACNH b/c there is nothing there, which I think during the first months of covid was exactly the point. I did finish the "campaign" but I don't think it took that long. In fairness to me though it was only my 2nd Animal Crossing game, and my first was AC: amiibo Festival. You even play AC:aF? Or should I say you ever watch AC:aF play itself? ACNH is a freaking 11/10 masterpiece compared to aF.
It's been so long since I played AC:NH I thought it was on Wi U so I didn't want to go check how long I actually played it for. I can check on Switch for ya, think it's 502. Maybe if I boot it up now I can spend 25 hours pulling weeds and killing cockroaches. 😂
Last time I played it was NYE 2020. I made an avatar for my wife to play as and we took photos all over the island b/c it was covid and we had nothing else to do.
https://twitter.com/bobmrik/status/1344886044307517443?s=20
Oh, and for awhile I did "Todays Tale in 4 Pics" that I posted regualrly on Twitter b/c I could post 4 pics at a time on twitter.
https://twitter.com/search?q=%40bobmrik%20Tale%20in%204&src=typed_query&f=top
@rjejr Oh. Well if it was your FIRST AC game (aF does not count any more than Theatrhythm counts as an FF game, though it's still more an FF game than 16. Or 11.) Yeah...so, you don't know what you've missed. That was a really bad AC game. It cut out most of what AC is (the actual life sim) and just replaced it with materials grinding and pointless cosmetics crafting, all on daily cooldown timers like an F2P mobile game but with less game and more money spent. But it was a wild success so they'll do it again (gag).
I still can't imagine what you did for 500 hours unless you just left it running to wait for timers to cool down which sadly, makes sense.
But you really didn't have ANYTHING else in your massive gamer backlog to spend those 500 hours on? Like...nothing? Playing that game was like watching paint dry, except the paint is usually dry in less than the 24 hours you have to wait for anything to happen in ACNH.
The ACNH series is so charming. It's not deep but it's varied and charming. Except that game, it was nothing but a loot grind/cosmetics crafting/decorating sandbox with cardboard cutouts of the previously quirky villagers that instead existed as repeating dialogs that exists only to serve you, their master.
@NEStalgia Well here's the ting, as a stay at home dad of 2 older teenagers so there really isn't anything for me to do during the day, but also married to a woman who enjoys watching me play video games in my free time, AC:NH was my way to kill time in the morning game, and all the actual games I only play at night while my wife is watching. So I have a string of games I've wasted 500 hours on that serve no purpose. Over 2,000 levels in Candy Crush (glad I finally got bored w/ that) then Gems of War, gEms not God, then Zelda - yeah I know BotW shouldn't be in the same sentence as those others but lets face it the game is 80% waste of time, 20% game. For the past year+ it's been Fortnite. Zelda up next, my wife has told me to play it w/o her, she has 0 %, then who knows what. But I need my hour in the morning to wake up. Cheaper than prescription drugs. Occasionally I'll take a video game break and binge watch a show, but only a few - Sopranos, Sons of Anarchy, Justified, Breaking Bad - probably a couple of others I can't remember.
ACNH was a fluke though, w/o covid I maybe play it for 150 hours, covid screwed me. I'm still screwed.
Before Candy Crush I just spent 8 hours a day on PS and NL killing time. But then I discovered twitter. 😂
Fortnite.....Candy Crush.....Gems of.....
Reputation CRITICAL HIT
-40 REPUTATION
...BotW Recovery attempt failed.
-23 REPUTATION.
REPUTATION low
That's such a first world problem, it's more of an imperial problem lol
Hoever, even with unlimited free time and nothing to do, there are still infinite things I could find to do for 500 hours that are more engaging and rewarding than ACNH. That's just a lack of imagination at work there.
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