The MMO shooter Destiny 2 is celebrating an event next week where Bungie will show its generous side. There are not supposed to be any new microtransactions.
In recent years, Bungie has repeatedly held events in Destiny that lasted a week or a few weeks, decorated the Tower festively, and introduced new items.
Originally, the Guardians thought that these events should bring variety to the game and provide new goals. However, it soon became clear that these offered hardly any new reasons to play more, but primarily created new opportunities to pay more.
Especially in the fall of 2016, the mood changed when the Festival of the Lost degraded into “Festival of Microtransactions”. Bungie released a promotional trailer for real-money use in advance, which was not well received in the community at all. They advertised that you could buy cool stuff in the Eververse – that was all there was to the trailer:
Events in Destiny 2 are still criticized
In Destiny 2, the Dawning event took place between the years, during which Guardians also had to reach into their wallets if they wanted to obtain all the new Dawning items. A winter wonderland of microtransactions!
A major point of criticism about the Dawning was that you couldn’t even get to the Dawning Engrams with experience points. You only received the standard gloss engrams through XP, which did not yield new items.
In short: The time-limited events no longer create a festive atmosphere, as they revolve solely around microtransactions. The criticism is significant. If Bungie wants to lure players back to the game with such events, they need to change something. And they are doing that now.
The Crimson Week introduces several new – and better – things
Recently, the developers announced the Crimson Week that will take place in Destiny 2 starting February 13. And during this event, Bungie is acting unusually generous: All new items can only be obtained through gameplay. No Crimson Engrams can be bought with real money!
What makes the Crimson Week different from the previous “Festivals of Microtransactions”?
- The majority of Crimson items are contained in Crimson Engrams. These engravings can not be acquired via microtransactions in the Eververse. The top post in the Destiny reddit is currently highlighting this with praise.
- You can obtain the Crimson Engrams through the new 2v2 PvP playlist or by collecting enough XP. Bungie was thus able to respond to this point of criticism from the Dawning event.
- The engravings are not limited. You can earn as many Crimson Engrams as you want.
- The rewards from the Crimson Engrams have a “Knock-Out List” mechanic. This means the engravings will only provide duplicates once you possess all the new gear. If you play enough, you are guaranteed to obtain all the new items from the engravings.
- Additionally, you can earn 5 more exclusive rewards by achieving specific goals.
- In the Eververse, you can only buy available Crimson items directly for glimmer.
The Guardians are responding to the Crimson Week in Destiny 2 with mixed feelings. It is definitely a step in the right direction that everything can be earned and players are not being aggressively asked to pay. Many are also glad that a new mode is finally being introduced in the Crucible with 2v2.
However, there is also criticism regarding what can be earned. The rewards are said to be boring, everything is just cosmetic stuff with a new coat of paint. Additionally, some accuse Bungie of recycling old content again – as they are introducing a new version of the old Destiny 1 map “The Burning Shrine”.
Will you be participating in the Crimson Week? What do you think of the decisions for the event?
You can find all information and rewards for the Crimson Week in Destiny 2 here.
