Just over a year after its release, Bungie's massively popular sci-fi shooter Destiny will now be featuring microtransactions.
Through an announcement posted on the company's official website, Bungie revealed that a patch will be released on Oct. 13 which will have Tess Everis, a sideline character of the game, return. Everis previously gave out bonuses which were related to real-life offers such as pre-orders for Destiny, but now, she will be returning to the Tower to run the Eververse Trading Company.
Everis will initially be offering 18 new emotes which, like the three emotes offered through the Collector's Edition of The Taken King expansion, are completely optional for gamers, and will not be affecting the gameplay in any way. Emotes are the gestures and dances that gamers can trigger for taunting or celebrating while playing the game.
To be able to purchase the emotes, gamers will have to collect silver, which will be new form of currency for the game. Silver can be purchased through the respective stores of the different gaming consoles, with the price of silver to be revealed once the patch is launched next week. Destiny gamers, however, will be receiving some free silver into their accounts next week to try out buying from the Eververse Trading Company.
According to Kotaku, other items to be offered include sparrow skins. Sources also told the website that Bungie is planning to release free missions and quests as opposed to sell big expansion packs.
Microtransactions have been the subject of debate for gamers, as such in-game purchases that require real-life money often offer ways to make games easier. This trend led to the rise of "pay-to-win" players, as some gamers can spend a lot of money to make sure they get the best weapons and abilities, for example, while other gamers are not able to and are instead stuck with what can be accessed through playing the game.
It seems that such microtransactions will not be present in Destiny, with Bungie stating that the new update will not cause gamers to lose any Crucible encounters or cause them to fail in clearing a Raid as the purchases are entirely optional.
Whether Bungie will stay true to this kind of microtransaction model remains to be seen, but as of now, Destiny players will not have to worry about being beaten by other players just because they had more money to spend on better weapons and armor.
