Examples of Damage Control in Gaming: Obfuscated Destiny
Those who weren’t disappointed with this past holiday season’s release of Bungie’s Destiny were excited to hear a significant expansion was coming during Sony’s E3 Conference this year in Destiny: The Taken King, despite it being — of course — leaked beforehand. Both the developer and publisher Activision are calling it the next step in the franchise, an adventure that will offer new areas to explore, new abilities for the player to utilize, and new activities. Of course, there’s also a new enemy in the purportedly formidable Taken King, a large boss that players will have to assemble in groups to topple. It will offer a bit more than the previous two expansions, but it’s not quite a sequel either.
As it turns out, there’s a little catch that you don’t have to read too in-between the lines to discover.
It was confirmed shortly after the announcement that The Taken King will be available as a special “Legendary Edition” retail or digital package come September, one also including the original game and the two previous expansions for $60. That will also come with new emotes, shaders (which change an outfit’s color scheme and pattern), and new class-specific items. The Taken King adventure will also be available as a digital download for $40 for those who already own the original. Notice something missing here? Along with that price being pretty high compared to other expansions, the extras coming with the retail package won’t be available for those who download the separate quest. Uh oh.
The release is fine for newcomers who want to pick up everything at once, but there’s no way to get everything for those buying the separate quest, along with its price being questionable. As you’d expect, some fans aren’t happy about this.
Those fans would have been fine with this if The Taken King’s feature set was promised to be on par with the original game, or even slightly below that, but indications thus far have suggested otherwise. They also haven’t given a good reason why the extras can’t come with the expansion, or why they can’t simply give them to the audience who owns the base game for free, if they’re so miniscule.
It’s worth noting that there was mostly quiet concern among the fanbase for the above. What really sent fans into a fit of rage was when Bungie had creative director Luke Smith to handle damage control the decisions while discussing the expansion with Eurogamer, because he couldn’t have sounded more unsympathetic . In answering their questions, Smith discussed how great of a deal the Legendary Edition will be, and championed the new features the new adventure will have, dodging any of the concerns brought up. That’s not what the fanbase wanted to hear, and it was disheartening to see this attitude from a guy who rallied against such practices during his time at 1up.
Bungie and Activision did end up doing some damage control, ensuring a happier (but not “happy”) ending for some. They wanted to thank their loyal fans by offering the extras to them with the purchase of The Taken King. They’ve also updated the official website to tell fans what they’re getting. That’s nice, but they still haven’t convinced anyone who thinks the expansion is too expensive. Perhaps that’s on their itinerary for the next few months, but we’ll see.
I’m surprised both companies couldn’t foresee such a fan reaction. Both have staff familiar with how people tend to react online. It’s a mystery that will never be answered, unless someone is willing to dish some details.
The extras aren’t that big of a deal, but the combination of that and the price was easily enough to irk more than a few. The community felt both could potentially be representative of actions Activision could get away with in the future, and the venomous response was intended to prevent that slippery slope from occurring. We’re already having issues with excessive DLC, season passes, and always-online titles, and no one in their right mind wants AAA developers adding more anti-consumer tactics.
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Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
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I actually read up on this prior to your post, which is extremely rare for me. Still, I thought it was a hilarious interview. While reading it, I wondered, “Does he not realize how much of a total douche he…” but midway into that thought, another part of my mind interrupted with, “Are you seriously going to ask yourself that?” Then, all three of us went back to burning stuff, but that’s irrevelant to this discussion.
I know Destiny fans were fuming, but as someone with minimal interest in it, I laughed my ass off too. It’s almost like he wanted to sound like that on purpose.