Oh dear
In a salty exchange with our friends over at Eurogamer, Destiny’s creative director, Luke Smith, has defended the price of the upcoming expansion, The Taken King.
To access all the exclusive content available in The Taken King, you’ll need to buy the new Collector’s Editon, which will set you back £80/$80. It essentially means you’ll end up buying the base game AND the two other DLC packs again. For no reason.
When asked if he could understand why fans are “confused” that Bungie wants fans to buy stuff they already own – even acknowledging that the developer had “set some stuff aside for that edition specifically to really make it appeal to fans who have engaged with the game already” – Smith said: “Yeah, I can totally empathise with those people. But the Collector’s Edition is a pretty cool package for people who want to pursue that stuff.”
“Purchasers get a big, rich campaign. Fully voiced cinematics and the story of what happens when an angry alien god wages war on a solar system, all with a satisfying conclusion. You also have a new subclass to pursue and unlock. We also have a bunch of new strikes – we’re not yet talking about how many – and a new raid. We’re showing two new PVP modes and four PVP maps this week, and it’s a fairly safe bet we’re not done yet showing things off. So I’m fairly excited about the value proposition. We’re calling this a major expansion because it is. We’re giving people a whole new place to go, that new destination…”
But it’s the same price as the base game, pressed Eurogamer.
“All I can do is answer that with the same thing I just gave you… We’re really comfortable with the value we’re giving to players this autumn. I believe that once we begin to share more, players will be even more excited. And for existing players it also comes with the Founder’s pack with a new Sparrow, shader and emblem.”
When asked how Bungie justify the price point outside of the US (in the UK, it’ll be £40, which roughly converts to $63), Smith couldn’t talk about anything other than American Dollars as British Pounds are “just foreign” to him.
The Collector’s Edition will feature three emotes unavailable to players who do not pick up the £80 bundle. Though EG did an admirable job pressing for a reason as to why Bungie steadfastly refuses to offer the content to those who had already invested their money — and time — in Destiny’s world, Smith said it was about “the players assessment of the value for the content” and insisted that if he “fired up a video right now and showed you the emotes” we would “throw money at the screen”.
He closed on saying that while Bungie was “reading the forums and the reactions to this week’s announcements” and will “continue to discuss player feedback with respect to the game and Collector’s Edition content”, he had “nothing to announce today”.
For more, check out the interview in full, although steel yourself – it’s a painful read.
If you want to buy it, The Taken King launches on September 15. I’m genuinely not sure I want it anymore, though. You?
