Destiny 2 changes the way they make money. Instead of relying on buyable loot boxes, the bright engram, players should know in the future what they spend money on. That should apply from Season 10, which starts on Tuesday. Destiny 2 follows the trend that Fortnite started a few years ago.
This is Bungie’s announcement: Chef Luke Smith says: You want players to know what it costs before they buy it.
The bright engrams will therefore no longer be sold from Season 10. But they remain a free part of the season pass.
What are the engrams? The Bright Engrams in Destiny 2 are seasonal loot boxes that contain cosmetic items. They match the season or event that was active when players received them.
You could either get these engrams by playing Destiny 2 and leveling up or by going to the shop at Tess Everis and getting the loot boxes for silver, the real money currency.
In the past, players were given a loot box for each level upgrade after the Max level, today they’ve been put on the Season Pass.
In the future it will only be possible to receive the loot boxes by leveling the season pass and no longer through the shop.
Cash shops over the course of time
Why are they doing this? This is a change in the industry that Fortnite has initiated:
In Overwatch (2016) it was still common to give the players “loot boxes” from which an item could accidentally fall. Sometimes a main prize, a particularly rare item, but usually, a particularly common item. At Overwatch, players could either earn loot boxes or simply buy them for real money.
With Fortnite: Battle Royale (2017), the trendy model switched to a cash shop with a constantly changing range. Players could now specifically buy the cosmetic item they want; the “happiness factor” disappeared.
Fortnite reportedly earned $ 3 billion on this model and the sale of Battle Passes in 2018.
At the same time there was criticism of the loot boxes. EA, who used loot boxes at FIFA 20, had to defend their business model before the British government, for example. It was then said that it was not a game of chance, it was “quite ethical surprise mechanics.”
There were also rules that required publishers in China to disclose the exact percentages of the likelihood of the items included.
Monetization in Destiny 2 totally messed up
Something has started to move in the last few years: The trend in the gaming industry is moving away from loot boxes towards conscious purchases. Bungie now wants to follow the trend with Season 10 in Destiny 2.
Bungie is in line with the zeitgeist, but it is not as if Bungie had foregone a huge source of income here.
It’s amazing how little this change interests people in Destiny 2. Bungie doesn’t seem to give much of a priority to the issue either: the Bright Engram was somehow the 18th thing that Luke Smith announced when the blog post was nearing its end. Much more attention was given to the news that legendary weapons have an expiration date.
This is a sign that Destiny’s “Eververse Concept” does not work: Because you could buy items in advance. Apparently, hardly anyone has bought loot boxes in Destiny 2 anyway.
Destiny 2 currently has an overloading monetization feature
- Buyable extension Shadowkeep
- Extra seasons
- A season pass with cosmetic items
- A cash shop with cosmetic items
- And the loot boxes with cosmetic items
So it is no longer noticeable if a leftover part falls out with the buyable loot boxes. Especially since players continue to earn the Bright Engram anyway. Because the Bright Engrams should remain in the game as a reward.
Taking the loot boxes out of the cash shop is a decision with a “symbolic character.” From a player’s point of view, it doesn’t change much.
You can see what new cosmetics are in Destiny 2 here.
