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Destiny: The Taken King Creative Director Apologizes With $20 DLC Bundle

By Daniel George

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During an interview with Eurogamer at E3 2015, Destiny: The Taken King creative director Luke Smith made some bizarrely poor statements in the defense of the $40/£40 price tag for the expansion. Using American dollars when speaking to someone representing the UK “because British pounds are just foreign” to them and thinking showing off emotes will have people “throw money at the screen” were just some of the PR mishaps coming out of the interview. The chief concern was that people who owned special editions of Destiny would have to double down on purchases in order to get exclusive content from The Taken King.

Thankfully, Luke Smith took to the Bungie.net forums last night to apologize for his behavior, although the end result may not be what one would hope for. The crux of his statement:

"Reading my interview with Eurogamer and imagining it came from some random developer of a game I love – that random developer looks like an Asshat.But that Asshat was me – and those words rightfully anger you.I’m sorry.My words made it sound as if Bungie doesn’t care about their most loyal fans.We do care. We are listening. And we will make it right."

The result of “making it right?” Bungie will separate the digital content of the Collector’s Edition for Destiny: The Taken King’s stand-alone expansion and offer it for sale at $20. What should be offered for, at least, a quarter of the price, that $20 will net you 3 class-specific emotes, 3 armor shaders and 3 exotic class items with XP bonuses.

For comparison, the House of Wolves expansion (also at $20) provided Prison of Elders and Trials of Osiris arena events (plus relevant armor, shader, ship, weapons and class item each), 5 new story missions, 9 new exotic armor pieces, 3 new exotics, Variks’ offerings of 3 class items and 5 ships, 10+ new emblems, a brand new strike, 3 new crucible maps and new Queen bounties and ships.

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While I’m sure that Luke Smith is genuine in his apology, the recourse Bungie and Activision is taking to “make it right” is quite laughable. While I understand how bundling former expansion content into a “Game of the Year Edition” type of release is fair, charging $20 for lifetime supports of Destiny for what would amount to microtransactions in free-to-play MMO’s almost doubles down on Bungie’s hunger for its earliest adopters’ money. If this $20 bundle does sell well, it means that Luke Smith was right; people will be throwing their money at the screen at the sight of emotes.

Furthermore, seeing how Destiny: The Taken King’s Collectors Edition $20/£20 digital content needs the $40/£40 release of The Taken King itself, those who already own Destiny and want to get the expansion and the digital content separately would have to pay $60/£60, as opposed to just outright buying The Taken King’s Collector’s Edition at $80/£80. We’ll have to see whether or not the apology will be enough when Destiny: The Taken King is released on September 15 for PS4, Xbox One, PS3 and Xbox 360.

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