Bungie will charge standard edition Destiny 2 players for dungeons, on top of microtransactions and season passes

Yikes Scoob

The move away from Activision was supposed to be a boon for Bungie, but it’s turned out to be a headache for some players. Over the years the team has moved into more aggressive monetization methods, amid a continued stream of constant “we’re listening” apology tours after half-backtracking on bad ideas. We just learned that Bungie is removing the entire Forsaken King expansion (one of the few bright spots in the early days of the game) on February 22, 2022, as part of its regularly scheduled vaulting program. Now we know that standard edition customers for the upcoming Witch Queen expansion won’t be getting access to the game’s dungeons. Yep, for the next expansion, Destiny 2 dungeons are premium content.

The hubbub started a few days ago when someone noticed this innocuous Q&A tidbit that hinted that dungeons for the expansion were no longer included in the base expansion (which is a premium on top of microtransactions and a season pass system):

If I purchase the Standard Edition of The Witch Queen, will I be able to get the additional Dungeons that are included in the Deluxe Edition? 

Yes, you can upgrade to the Deluxe Edition to access the Dungeons. We will also add a separate access path in the future.

Reddit picked up on it, basically saying “exsqueeze me? Baking powder?” And it turns out their concerns were founded.

As usual, community liaison Cozmo had to be the bearer of bad news — or in Bungie’s case, bad management — by giving this reply (emphasis mine):

“Hey everyone. We’ve seen some debate around the new dungeon content and wanted to clarify how it will be delivered next year. If you get the Digital Deluxe Edition of The Witch Queen you will receive the expansion, all four Seasons for the next year, and the two Dungeons. If you get the Standard Edition, you can still upgrade to the Deluxe Edition to get the dungeons later. We will also be offering a separate way for you to purchase the Dungeons in the future, but they will not be included in the Season passes. We will share more info on this closer to when this content is set to go live.”

The immediate reply of “I know it’s not your fault, but you’re going to get eviscerated here,” was on point, which Cozmo took in stride. When you’re constantly relaying bad planning from Bungie higher-ups through no fault of your own, it must get tiring.

So Destiny 2 is going the way of confusing Ubisoft pre-order tiers, eh? Well, given the “throw money at the screen” quote from 2015, this is business as usual.