Am I the only one who's actually happy about this? (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Monday, October 05, 2015, 22:39 (3432 days ago) @ Cody Miller

As long as this stuff is 100% optional, 100% cosmetic, then what's the harm?

The harm is that now instead of focusing on big, fun, tightly integrated game changing releases like The Taken King, the focus will be on free story missions that will not hit a critical mass to be interesting. There is a bigger picture.

Did paying $20 per DLC yield big, fun, tightly integrated game changing releases last year? I'd say no, for the most part. TDB and HoW were mostly "more of the same". It took a full year to create TTK. These free missions and quests are going to fill the gap between now and the next major content release, be it another major expansion or Destiny 2. The big difference this time around is that the quality of TTK's missions is much higher on average. I'd be just fine with "more of the same", as long as the new quests are as good as TTK's missions.

You are right about the previous two dlcs, which just means it will be worse. That means every active player has to spend on average 20 bucks on cosmetic content. Per dlc release. That seems fantastically unlikely, which means what you do get will be worse than Dark Below. You think Tess is going to fund a storyline and series of quests leading up to a Raid? Not happening.

What you're saying goes against the facts of how "free to play" models work.

When you release major DLC packs ($15-$20) you make more per sale, but you sell to far fewer people. My guess is 20%-30% of the people who bought Destiny went on to buy TDK, even fewer bought HoW (I'm talking before the TTK bundle).

When you have low cost purchases ($1-$5), you make less per sale, but you sell WAY more of them. 50%-75% of your players are likely to buy something at some point. And of those players, there are the 1%-5% who buy EVERYTHING. These "whales" as they're called generate huge income, in addition to all the little sales from the rest of the population.

Now consider the positives to the game: all the new content is free. That means everyone who has the game has all the same content. No more splintering of the fan base, which has been the bane of console multiplayer games since Halo 3. Everyone has everything, which keeps the community engaged and playing together for longer.