Destiny: The Taken King Collector's Edition Content Now Available Separately
I don't know if anyone saw/read the interview with Eurogamer interviewing Luke Smith where he basically, flat-out said that the only way to get any of the new features being released along with the Taken King would only be available by purchasing the Collector's Edition. These features would be exclusive shaders, exotic XP gaining equipment, and emotes.
As I predicted; people were pissed.
A few hours ago, Bungie announced that these additional features will now be available to veteran players without having to buy the Collector's Edition. In addition, there will be veteran perks available to anyone that reaches level 30 before Taken King goes live. They will include a veteran shader, emblem and sparrow.
Here's where it gets crazy.
Bungie wants to sell the now freestanding collector's edition perks to players for $20 dollars. Is that bad? It depends on who you ask. Personally I don't think its a bad thing; but its setting the stage for future microtransactions. Anyone that knows me, knows I am HEAVY on conspiracy theories, especially corporate, government and social engineering.
I doubt that Luke Smith is a genius; he speaks like a moron, so I don't give him any benefit of the doubt; but I think that Bungivision is using the incident as a platform to test the waters for microtransactions.
This goes back to many of the games in recent history; where you pay a small amount, and receive something. Is it a bad system? Again it depends on who you ask. I paid a bit of money for the Secret World to buy costumes for my character; it was purely cosmetic and served no purpose in battle; I knew that, but I wanted my character to look awesome. $5-10 dollars at max for a costume. Costumes could also be interchanged with other costumes (IE; hat, shirt, jacket, pants, shoes, accessory.) So with more combinations; possibilities are endless. I liked it, it worked well, and you could be unique.
Now imagine logging in to a store menu every time you log into the game; X amount of money for an Exotic item, or maybe a little less for a legendary. Maybe? Maybe not; pay2win is highly looked down on, and I don't think they would shoot that low; then again, Activision. Consider also that in PvP, weapon damage is normalized; but it would still be murder in PvE.
Also imagine:
- Motes of light
- Strange Coins
- Crafting Material
- Cosmetic Items
- Engrams; as a kind of gambling (similar to Diablo 2; or boxes in the game Rift.)
What would make the most sense from a business standpoint is to sell little things like this. A few dollars here and there. If they're really smart, they'll even uncap the glimmer, and allow you to purchase these things with in-game currency to establish a web of currency. Real money or glimmer/marks. To give the players a sense of choice; however, if the prices are too steep, or requirements too high, then a few dollars spent sounds pretty good. I'd predict that they would even go so far as to give the outfitter and speaker a reputation grind. Get to level 4,5,6,etc, and you can buy these special colors for 10k glimmer... or just pay 3 dollars to get it now.
Again, is it a bad thing? Not really, its just business.