The sense of unease with Bungie's handling of Destiny 2's paid content and microtransactions has reached new heights, according to some of the game's most prominent content creators and the community at large. It is a matter of fact that Destiny has been getting more and more monetization features as time has gone on, and some feel that Bungie has now taken things a bit too far.
Complaints are common in virtually any gaming community, but some of Destiny 2's biggest Internet communities have turned to critiquing Bungie's handling of the beloved IP. These complaints and concerns have further been amplified as of late, now that Bungie has officially announced that it's working on a live-service revival of the classic Marathon franchise, specifically in the form of an extraction shooter.
Destiny 2 was under fire earlier this year after Bungie failed to comment on missing game content, and the community hasn't become any less critical of the developer over the past couple of months. In fact, some of the game's most prominent content creators, such as Aztecross, have taken to criticizing Destiny 2's heavy-handed monetization scheme as well as the way in which Bungie has been interacting with the community as of late. Citing seasonal price increases, the paid Dungeon keys, Event purchases, and numerous other examples, Aztecross explained just how far the studio has stretched Destiny at this point, and it's not a big surprise to see the community agreeing with this sentiment.
In fact, Aztecross cited some of the features present in Bungie's upcoming extraction shooter to illustrate his example that the development of Marathon is changing Destiny 2, notably the availability of dedicated servers, leaderboards, and maps, all of which have been highly requested by Destiny PvP fans, only to never materialize in the game. Aztecross's argument resonated with the community, as the post highlighting his video skyrocketed to the top of the game's biggest subreddit.
Destiny players have criticized new monetization features for a while now, with the Dungeon key in particular being a notable point of contention. Whereas Dungeons used to release as part of other, bigger pieces of content, they have since been moved into their own unique monetization option, and this doesn't seem to be changing any time soon.
It doesn't help, either, that Destiny 2: Lightfall was widely criticized upon release both for its lack of hard-hitting narrative reveals and for the tone of the campaign itself. As Bungie hasn't responded to many of the problems the community brought up months ago, they are now being discussed once more, and it remains to be seen how the developer will handle the surge of negativity that's been building up over the past months.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
