The toughest factor about Future 2 is getting any of your folks to play it. Followers of Bungie’s bold and imaginative sci-fi shooter have lengthy hoped for a easy on-ramp that might make it simpler to get lapsed gamers and newcomers again into its universe. Future 2’s new “Starter Pack” would possibly sound like precisely that. As an alternative, it’s an expensive bundle of random objects that followers can’t cease dunking on.
Season of the Want went dwell immediately with an thrilling trailer and new missions revolving round amassing dragon eggs to win over an outdated enemy. However gamers additionally quietly observed a brand new DLC add-on on PSN, Xbox, and Steam that went dwell alongside the newest replace. It’s called the Destiny 2 Starter Pack, it prices $15, and it’s one of many extra ridiculous microtransactions I’ve seen. Opposite to what its identify would possibly recommend, the Starter Pack doesn’t embody any expansions, missions, or story content material. It’s only a random assortment of stuff meant to “supercharge” gamers’ arsenals. Right here’s what’s included:
- Traveler’s Chosen
- Ruinous Effigy
- Sleeper Simulant
- Unique Ship
- Unique Sparrow
- Unique Ghost Shell
- 125,000 Glimmer
- 50 Enhancement Cores
- 5 Enhancement Prisms
- 1 Ascendant Shard
These first three objects are all outdated Unique weapons which were within the sport since 2019 or earlier than. They’re largely high-quality however solely synergize with particular builds and may all be acquired from the Tower kiosk with out an excessive amount of fuss. The ship, sparrow, and ghost shell are purely beauty and utterly depending on private style. For my part a minimum of, those within the Starter Pack are removed from among the sport’s higher designs.
The supplies, in the meantime, are fairly stingy. Glimmer is Future 2’s essential in-game forex, earned by doing something and every little thing. Cores, prisms, and Ascendant Shards (what gamers lovingly name “golf balls”) are for focusing engrams, rerolling gear, and crafting new objects, none of which is especially useful for brand spanking new gamers, nor very significant within the portions supplied. It’s not even sufficient to totally masterwork a brand new piece of armor. It’s a weird array of accouterments to purchase for greater than the price of a whole season of the sport.
“I’d say that is pay to win, however actually it’s only a waste of cash,” wrote one participant on the Future subreddit. “Pay to lose.” One other wrote, “That is pathetic. 3 mid exotics, a number of crap cosmetics and a few supplies isn’t value that a lot. An actual starter pack can be weapons and outdated DLCs.”
There are three broad obstacles to gamers getting again into Future 2. The primary is that many of the story is now not within the sport because of content material vaulting. The second is that Future 2’s “New Gentle” marketing campaign stays fairly barebones and gives no actual route with end-game actions. And the third is that regardless of ostensibly being free-to-play, the entire expansions are paid and unlocking entry to every little thing remains to be fairly costly. Shadowkeep, the underwhelming 2019 enlargement, remains to be usually $25. The Starter Pack simply provides to the noise, complicated gamers with deceptive descriptions like “Fly between locations in your new Unique ship.” Narrator voice: Unique ships are simply customized loading display screen animations.
The Starter Pack additionally comes within the context of layoffs at Bungie amid the delay of 2024’s The Last Form enlargement and reported income shortfalls. At a time when the studio is seemingly determined for cash, the $15 bundle simply underlines the gulf between gamers and whoever is main Future 2’s monetization technique. It’s one factor to exploit whales, however as Future 2 gamers are stating, the brand new Starter Pack appears squarely aimed toward benefiting from new gamers who gained’t know any higher. Within the phrases of one in all them, “That is some cell sport shit.”
Replace 11/29/2023 6:09 p.m. ET: Bungie seems to have eliminated Future 2’s controvertial Starter Pack from storefornts, together with Valve’s storefront. “Discover: Future 2: Starter Pack is now not obtainable on the Steam retailer,” reads an replace on the Steam itemizing. PlayStation Retailer listings, in the meantime, return error pages.
Along with roasting the microtransaction on social media and Reddit, some gamers had additionally tried to review-bomb the bundle and alter the Steam tags for it to issues like “psychological horror.”
