In Destiny , the in-game cash shop has only been active for a few hours, and rumors are already surfacing that Bungie intends to expand the offerings to include “Pay2Win” items. What’s the truth?
As soon as it was announced that Destiny would introduce an in-game cash shop, there were concerns: “Yes, you are only selling emotes now, and it won’t be long before you sell exp boosts or certain materials!”
Every player received 400 silver as a gift. Those who want to buy additional silver will find that the smallest package of 500 silver costs nearly 5 euros. So far, so good.
Will players soon lose their good mood?
Pay2Win elements are coming, stated in the Destiny forum
This morning, a furious post appeared on “Bungie.net”, Destiny’s forum, titled “Pay2Win is coming – I have the proof!”
A player claimed to have found indications in the database that soon “consumable items” would be added to the nearly pristine cash shop of the game, pushing Destiny into the disreputable “Pay2Win” corner. This term refers to when players can buy virtual advantages for real money.
To prove his allegations, the player cited the purchase screen of Tess Everis. It states that “consumable items cannot be returned.” While she is not currently selling any, the implication is clear: items that can only be used once are certainly on the way!
The user found numerous items in the database, which he claims are new: all consumable items.
He concludes that players could soon purchase “buffs” for silver, thus indirectly for real money, to increase their drop chances in the hard mode of King’s Fall. He also found various EXP boosts for specific enemy races and boosts to level subclasses faster in the database.
The corresponding thread on Bungie.net has since been deleted. Gaming websites, including German sites, are reporting on it. There are forum threads, discussions are happening. The issue is circulating. It is causing panic and seems to confirm the concerns many have.
What does Bungie say about it?
On Neogaf, Luke Smith, the Game Director of “The Taken King”, has now addressed these allegations.
Smith writes that the items that increased drop chances in “King’s Fall” have been in the database for a while, but are not in the game. These files in the database were remnants of an idea that players could buy buffs from the “Speaker” – much like the “Three of Coins” from Xur. However, this idea was discarded due to bugs.
There was never a plan for players to purchase such raid drop buffs for silver.
On Twitter, Smith reiterates this.
We aren’t (nor are we planning) on selling consumables that buff King’s Fall drop rates for Silver.
— Luke Smith (@thislukesmith) October 14, 2015
Furthermore, Smith announced (while he was at it) that better rewards for the Nightfall strike are on the way. They plan to address that soon.
Mein MMO says: Interestingly, Smith specifically refutes only that one type of “consumable items.” However, he does not mention the “exp boosts” or other so-called “convenience” items. “Convenience” items refer to those exp boosts that save time but do not provide any “real” advantage beyond that.
As of now, it is still unclear whether the new cash shop has been introduced purely as an “additional” source of revenue for Bungie/Activision or if they intend to forego paid DLCs and instead only request payment for a larger expansion “once a year.” Rumors to that effect are also circulating. Bungie has not yet commented on this.
