Destiny 2 breaks with old dungeon traditions and is being heavily criticized for it. As Bungie has now announced, the new dungeons will no longer be included in the standard versions of “The Witch Queen” or the Season Passes for Year 5.
Dungeons (or Strikes) are a popular 3-player activity in Destiny 2, established in past expansions like Forsaken and Shadowkeep. They have always been included and a fixed part of the expansion with which they launched – playable without additional costs. Only the Prophecy dungeon was a gift from Bungie to its players.
However, Bungie seems to have revised its offering concept and has removed the sale of Year 5 dungeons as an inclusive offer. In the future, these endgame contents will also be offered separately after the release of expansions.
This is what will change with upcoming expansions:
- Those who purchase the standard versions of “The Witch Queen” plus the additional Season Passes for Year 5 will not be able to play the new dungeons.
- Only in the exclusive Deluxe Edition of “The Witch Queen” including the additional Season Passes for Year 5 will the new dungeons be included.
- Players can retroactively upgrade to the Deluxe Edition.
- The Year 5 dungeons will later also be sold separately, similar to the dungeon in the “30 Years of Bungie” package.
This was shared by Chris Shannon (Cozmo), Lead Community Manager at Bungie, with the Destiny 2 community as follows on reddit:
Hello everyone.
Chris Shannon (Cozmo), Lead Community Manager at Bungie
We have seen some discussions about the new dungeon content and wanted to clarify how they will be sold next year. If you purchase the Digital Deluxe Edition of The Witch Queen, you will receive the expansion, all four Season Passes for the next year, and the two dungeons. If you purchase the Standard Edition, you can still upgrade to the Deluxe Edition to receive the dungeons later.
We will also offer you a separate way to purchase the dungeons in the future, but they will not be included in the Season Passes. We will publish more information as soon as this content goes live.
Were the revenues for the dungeons not enough?
It seems that the financing of dungeons is no longer solely through Eververse, Destiny 2’s real-money shop, now that Joe Blackburn is the Game Director at Bungie.
Bungie is deviating from Luke Smith’s statement from August 2019 that dungeon-like missions are almost exclusively funded via Eververse.
MeinMMO also reported at that time on Luke Smith’s very personal and informative TWAB:
This makes players angry right now: It’s no wonder that the community is upset: combined with the ongoing aversion of players to the removal of important content, like the Tangled Shore including the Forsaken campaign, players are even more skeptical about the new monetization strategy for Destiny 2. And that is putting it mildly.
Cozmo, I hope you pass on the outrage of the community about this. It’s horrific. I know Bungie doesn’t care about us, but damn it. This is pure garbage.
Commented Radiolotek on reddit regarding Cozmo’s announcement
“Don’t worry guys, Eververse will finance events and so on…”
Bungie shows that they only care about your wallet […]
Even though the community is against it, Bungie’s decision seems to be set. Cozmo reaffirms this again on reddit:
It’s happening. I just wanted to make sure there are no ambiguities and everyone has the right information.
adds Chris Shannon (Cozmo), Lead Community Manager at Bungie
Bungie is ensuring planning security with this
Why is Bungie doing this? Many players initially thought it was great during the presentation of “The Witch Queen” that Bungie wants to release more endgame content for Destiny 2 in Year 5. This fact has now been tagged with a price tag.
Bungie has committed to releasing more and more regular endgame content drops during the big reveal of “The Witch Queen.”
This current announcement is meant to give players an extra incentive to buy the Deluxe Edition of the new expansion “The Witch Queen” right away. It includes everything and makes later purchases unnecessary.
A higher sale of the Deluxe version also gives Bungie long-term planning security, which could mean more good content for Destiny 2 players.
This is the endgame content for 2022: For Year 5, in addition to campaign and activities, more endgame content than before is set to come to Destiny 2:
- On one hand, a completely new raid for “The Witch Queen” will come in February 2022.
- During Season 5, a legacy raid from the content vault will return.
- There will be a total of 2 dungeons in Year 5. (No longer just one)
- Additionally, Bungie wants to offer replacements for the Sunder and Omen missions, which are moving into the content vault.
What do you think of this announcement? Or did you expect this change after the separate offer of the “30 Years of Bungie” package?
