With Destiny 2's The Witch Queen being one of the biggest video game releases coming next year, Bungie's looter shooter has been getting a lot of attention lately, even more so than it normally does. This has both benefits and headaches packed with it, mainly because the community is very vocal about anything controversial coming from Bungie either because people care about Destiny 2 or because it's a great example of what sparks debates these days. Destiny 2 was trending on Twitter a few weeks ago when the community was upset at the news of Bungie vaulting Forsaken content with the launch of The Witch Queen next year, even though many saw it coming after the events that preceded the release of Beyond Light last November.
Destiny 2 is trending once again today on Twitter, and this time too is not because players are happy about something, but rather due to the debacle that was the latest announcement regarding the dungeons coming in Year 5. The whole thing started with a few people making posts on Reddit about the price tag for The Witch Queen and the content included with it, which stemmed from the fact that Bungie's wording regarding the dungeons and the Deluxe Edition was not clear enough. Yesterday, Bungie replied stating that the dungeons are indeed exclusive to the Deluxe Edition rather than something coming with season passes, and the alternative is to either upgrade to Deluxe or wait for other purchase paths.
Why Players Are Angry About The Witch Queen's Pricing and Dungeons
Because the Deluxe Edition for The Witch Queen expansion is already $79.99, which does not include the 30th Anniversary Pack, people are upset that to play the game for a whole year they need to pay around $100. Furthermore, players are upset that Bungie didn't clarify this a lot earlier, possibly in August after the reveal, which would have helped people make a much more informed choice regarding their purchase. A Reddit user by the name of Foggyzebra commented on a post saying that this issue is making everything obscure for those who want to pre-order Destiny 2's upcoming expansion and that dungeons should at least be shown to help decide if that's something people want to pay for or not.
Twitter user Fitzy is more inclined to believe that Deluxe Editions of video games should instead provide some bonus stuff rather than being a paywall behind which content is gated. This sentiment is shared by many players, especially considering how much stuff is currently paid in Destiny 2, ranging from past expansions to season passes, from expansions to cosmetics. This also makes people upset because of all the vaulting going on, which led to a lot of content being removed with Beyond Light and now being inaccessible, which is set to happen again in 2023 when Lightfall drops.
Bungie cannot commit to the content it is introducing, so players are hesitant to purchase more Destiny 2 expansions and dungeons when they could very well be vaulted after a year or two. Furthermore, the community's reaction is dictated by what Bungie did in the past, such as releasing Shadowkeep in 2019 for $40 and including the whole campaign, a new dungeon, the Garden of Salvation Raid, and the first season of the year. When comparing this to the price for The Witch Queen and its content, players are not happy about the result.
Why Some Players Have a Positive Take on Destiny 2's The Witch Queen
However, the community is still split in two, with some resenting Bungie's decisions and poor wording, and others stating that the price might be high, but it is ok when factoring in all the content coming with it and the time players will be able to spend on it. Other people are instead making an argument out of what has been said multiple times within the Destiny 2 community over the years, which is that players would have been willing to pay extra money for more endgame content coming their way. This is precisely what is happening with The Witch Queen and the Year 5 Dungeons, and yet people are outraged by it for other reasons.
As a counter-argument for those stating that Destiny as a franchise has been extremely expensive, and unreasonably so, a Twitter user by the name of Seth the Gaming Banana listed all the price tags for every Destiny and Destiny 2 release to date. Surprisingly, over 7 years of content and two different games net a total of $570, which is an extremely high amount of money to spend all at once, but considering everything was diluted it's not too bad. Veterans who have been playing Bungie's space magic looter shooter have more likely than not gotten a lot of value out of the money spent on the games and their expansions and DLCs, and the total expense amounts to $1 a day for a year and a half, give or take.
Overall, what's saddening about the whole mess is that Destiny 2 is often trending for the wrong reasons rather than for things like players commenting on how great the narrative has been for a while now. This is exactly what content creator and YouTuber Skill Up said in a tweet, stating that those who don't play the game might get a negative idea of it due to all the posts dwelling on what's bad.
While things are not going to change in terms of pricing for Destiny 2's The Witch Queen, players also had a warning sign about paid dungeons coming to the game in the form of the 30th Anniversary Pack. Some say this was always intended as a test for more paid dungeons to come, but it's also true that the anniversary pack has not been released yet. Ultimately, the recent announcement might have been received badly by the community, but at least now players have a better understanding of what's coming with each edition and what to expect when pre-ordering.
Destiny 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.