Sorry for the click-baity title but this is pretty serious. If you want to talk depreciation this isn't what I'm talking about at all.
[url=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-06-22-destiny-the-taken-king-director-defends-40-expansion-price-tag][/url]
Edit: I also encourage you to sign this petition as it intersects well with this thread. Who knows maybe it will help.
[url=https://www.change.org/p/bungie-activision-give-year-1-players-the-same-perks][/url]
Edit 2: I'm hearing threads are being deleted. If you wanna be really cool copy this post in a word document and feel free to paste it as a new thread if it disappears. Don't spam existing threads because that's annoying.
Edit 3: Deej has commented that year one players will get "something better" than the collector's edition items and to look forward to the weekly update. Should be interesting to see how this goes down.
(Dawn of the Second Day)
[b]update[/b]
[url=http://i.imgur.com/HWfxrE6.jpg][/url]
7/11 employee flyer. I encourage you to read this too. "Destiny cons-- are used to paying a premium for downloadable content similar to this quest"
In this article, eurogamer interviewed Luke Smith about the worries players have expressed about the taken king both in price points ($40 =/=£40) and in collector's edition exclusives (three armor shaders, exclusives emotes, and continuous XP granting exotic class items) that are only available for players willing to shell out $80, most of which is for content they likely already own.
His answers to these questions were illuminating to say the least and rather than give cliffs notes I want you to read it yourself now. Think about what he says. I hope it leaves the same feeling in your gut that it left in mine.
When destiny first launched there were three editions: the vanilla game the digital guardian edition and the ghost edition.
The vanilla game was the vanilla game, simple enough. The ghost edition was for the high rollers who wanted something nice: their very own red dinklebot and an in game version of it. Cool. For those who wanted all of the in game content but didn't really want to drop more money on physical items there's the digital guardian edition which came with all of the in game items the ghost edition had.
Now we have a new release but with a radically different setup. The $40 expansion for owners of both expansions is analogous to the vanilla destiny package from above. Completely fine.
The $60 legendary edition is fine. New players should have a bundle for them, this kind of thing happens all the time and while I'm kinda suprised at how cheap it costs, they still have to be competitive against the heavy hitters shipping this season.
The collector's editions are where we run into trouble. The physical rewards are analogous to the ghost edition: you either want the strange coin or you don't (well gamestop is out of physical copies so I guess this is no longer a choice). That's fine.
The word collector has a certain long term investment attached to the name semantically so you would think it was made with current players in mind. But it comes with the legendary edition which is intended for new players... Alright that's fine I have my ghost I don't really mind the physical items so let's see the equivalent of the digital guardian edition because those shaders look nice, the emotes will liven up the game and the XP class items will lessen the grind and I wouldn't mind spending the halfway point between the $40 and the $80 editions.
Except the digital edition of the collector's edition also costs exactly the same as the physical edition: $80 (for less content as the digital version obviously doesnt include the physical items). The digital guardian editon came as a halfway point between the the two editions and included the full destiny experience in game. That was important.
Now current players are given two options: go all in on the $80 version, buy what you already own for the exclusive in game items, or buy the $40 version and watch as new players and current players who have more money than brains bypass the grind with their new XP capes for the rest of the game.
Not allowing current players the option to buy the taken king by itself with the complete in game content is price gouging. It's also making them artifically inflate their dlc sales as players are buying multiple copies of the dlc that they will never use because guess what? They already own it.
And then when an interviewer brings up these frustrations, this is the response we're given. If you care at all you have to be vocal about this. If this succeeds without contest it will be how companies sell content going forward. I'm not calling for a boycott but don't throw your money at them blindly. If you are content with the status quo ask yourself why you enjoy paying more for content you already own?
I refuse to pay for what I already have and you should too.
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Edited by Cosmic Milk: 6/23/2015 6:59:16 AMThe Taken King: Deluxe Digital Edition Includes: - The Taken King expansion - 3 in game exclusive shaders - 3 in game exclusive emotes - 3 in game exclusive class items Price $49.99 Wow, that was hard to come up with