The microtransaction side of Destiny 2 known as Eververse has had a complicated history ever since it was first introduced in the first game. Its addition post-launch and periods of time, especially at the launch of Destiny 2, when it felt as though really good content was locked behind its paywall among other issues have left many players feeling slighted by Bungie's implementation of Eververse that has not always appeared very player-friendly.
But Eververse underwent some huge changes in Shadowkeep, removing random engrams (read: loot boxes) for the most part and giving players a direct path to pay for the exact items that they want. In addition, many of the items in Eververse eventually roll into a Bright Dust section, allowing players to use Bright Dust to purchase the items, a currency that is now earned in-game by completing certain bounties. But not all items rotate into the Bright Dust section. And that rubbed many players the wrong way in Season of the Undying.
With the launch of this new version of Eververse in Shadowkeep, there were still a number of items that never rotated into the Bright Dust section and were only available for purchase with Silver, Destiny 2's in-game currency that costs actual money. Bungie says that in the Eververse Store with Shadowkeep and the accompanying Season of the Undying, approximately 50% of items were available for Bright Dust at some point during the season, while the other 50% could only be purchased with Silver.
And Bungie explained why that is, and to a greater extent, why that will seemingly always be true. Unsurprisingly, it all comes down with Eververse being a major source of revenue to help pay for continuing development of Destiny 2:
"Offering some amount of Eververse content for Silver only is part of ensuring we are able to fund our ability to keep creating and maintaining Destiny and supporting the team that makes Destiny."
However, Bungie said it heard the feedback this past season about the ratio of Silver-only items, and it said that in the upcoming Season of Dawn, about 80% of items will be available for purchase with Bright Dust, while 20% will remain only available for direct purchase with microtransactions. Bungie is also addressing another complaint about Eververse, that being players have no way of knowing which items are going to be available at some point for Bright Dust and which ones won't. That led some players to spend actual money on items they could have bought with Bright Dust had they known and waited for it to come into rotation.
In response, Bungie is going to post on social media each week and identify which of the weekly items in Eververse will be for only available for Silver so players can plan ahead and hold off buying an item if they know it will eventually rotate into the Bright Dust offerings.
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
Source: Bungie