The move away from Activision seemed like it could only work to Bungie’s advantage when it came to their live service shooter Destiny 2. Since then the company has veered harder than ever into monetization territory, something that was once viewed as the worst part of having Activision’s involvement in it. Perhaps this monetization is because without a big named studio backing them they are it is getting harder to turn a profit, but whatever the reason it has slowly ostracized their player base in a big way.
As part of a recent pattern with the company of implementing less than favorable ideas, before backtracking and apologizing to their community at large, it looks like dungeons that will be added in their upcoming The Witch Queen expansion are premium content. This means that standard edition purchasers of the expansion will not be getting access to this feature unless they are willing to pay for it.
This revelation was spotted a few days ago when a Q&A question seemed to hint that dungeons, which were previously implied to be included in the expansion, no longer seemed to be. Basically, it went down like this:
Question: If I purchase the Standard Edition of The Witch Queen, will I be able to get the additional Dungeons that are included in the Deluxe Edition?
Answer: Yes, you can upgrade to the Deluxe Edition to access the Dungeons. We will also add a separate access path in the future.
The implication there is, there is absolutely a path to upgrade to the Digital Deluxe version of the game, which you definitely can do, or you can buy access separately in the future… But you need to do one of those things if you want access to the content.
This lead to a massive community backlash, which is to be expected. Ultimately to community liaison Cozmo had to take the bullet on this, despite it not being in any way shape, or form their fault. They stated:
Hey everyone. We’ve seen some debate around the new dungeon content and wanted to clarify how it will be delivered next year. If you get the Digital Deluxe Edition of The Witch Queen you will receive the expansion, all four Seasons for the next year, and the two Dungeons. If you get the Standard Edition, you can still upgrade to the Deluxe Edition to get the dungeons later. We will also be offering a separate way for you to purchase the Dungeons in the future, but they will not be included in the Season passes. We will share more info on this closer to when this content is set to go live.
Even if your remove the money angle this seems like a less than stellar path of release. It makes it confusing to follow just where and how you can purchase aspects of the game. We will have to see how this affects the game overall when The Witch Queen releases on February 22, 2022.
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