Franchise Director Luke Smith has made a huge “Director’s Cut” statement regarding the state of Destiny 2. He provided exemplary insights into what happens to the money from microtransactions and what changes you can expect in the Eververse soon.
Where does the information come from? Recently, Luke Smith published a kind of blog with his Director’s Cut about the current status of Destiny 2. There, he summarizes everything that has happened around Destiny 2 in the last few months and gives behind-the-scenes insights. He also discusses the learnings and resulting changes. By the way, two more parts of the “Director’s Cut” are expected to follow in the coming days.
What Smith says about microtransactions and the Eververse
Part of his blog is dedicated to microtransactions and the Eververse.
Cosmetics from Whisper of the Worm essentially financed the Hour Zero
Initially, Smith openly and directly provided an example of what actually happens to the revenue from microtransactions through the Eververse.
They are a major part of Bungie’s business as a live game. While they do not fully finance the studio or projects like Shadowkeep, they help enormously in advancing the further development of Destiny 2 and enable things that could not be afforded otherwise.
As an example, Smith mentions the exotic sniper Whisper of the Worm. This received its own ornaments available for direct purchase in the Eververse – for real money. These ornaments were financially so successful that they paid for the new dungeon-like mission the “Hour Zero” (for the Perfected Outbreak) along with corresponding rewards. This “trash” is therefore quite important.
What to expect soon in the Eververse
After Smith illustrated what Bungie does with your money from the shop, he provided more detail on the upcoming changes to the Eververse.
The recently revised face of the Eververse and the already announced changes to the glimmer economy and ornaments are just part of what players can expect. Here are the plans:
New content for direct purchase: Even now in Season 7, no new glimmer engrams with fresh content have been introduced. These now include old content.
New content is instead available for direct purchase – whether with glimmer (in-game currency) and/or silver (real money currency). Because it is believed that players would prefer to buy cosmetics they like directly.
Don’t expect cosmetics through gameplay: Bungie intentionally wants to further separate cosmetics from gameplay – that is, dissociate functionality from appearance.
In the game, you are supposed to earn different items, additional power, mods, perk combinations, as well as various stats, triumphs or titles. Cosmetic items like universal ornaments, weapon ornaments, shaders, ships, sparrows, emotes or finishers should generally be available (with a few exceptions) from the Eververse.
The intended separation becomes particularly clear with armor and its aesthetics. Functionality is determined by Armor 2.0, and appearance by the armor itself as well as universal ornaments.
You no longer need to go to the Tower: Another change to the Eververse – starting this fall, you will no longer need to go directly to the Tower to browse the shop with Tess Everis. The Eververse will be moved to the Director (Navigator) in the planet view.
Class-specific content: The shop will also receive class-specific content. So if you are currently looking for universal ornaments for gauntlets with your Titan – specifically for that Guardian class – you will find corresponding armors for the Titan on one of the pages in the Eververse.
Discounts: If you already own parts from a certain set of universal ornaments, that will reduce the silver price of the set. For example, if you already have three out of five parts of a set, the cost to complete this set in silver will be reduced by 60%.
What do you think of these changes? Is this an acceptable solution for the Eververse?
