Following the Bungie layoffs and leaks that Destiny 2 is not meeting internal targets, the looter shooter’s playerbase has pinned the blame on its expensive DLC scaring newcomers off.
It hasn’t been a good week for Bungie or its employees with reports emerging that the Destiny 2 developer laid off 100 jobs, roughly 8% of its entire workforce.
Matters only worsened when leaks surfaced that Destiny 2 is projected to miss revenue targets by 45%. Staff reportedly pushed higher-ups to make the necessary changes beforehand but nothing came of it. This news followed CEO Pete Parson’s statement describing the fired employees as “truly talented people.”
Looking for the cause of Destiny’s decline fans are now pointing the finger at the looter shooter’s steep DLC prices and complicated structure.
Destiny 2 DLC blamed for its downfall
Looking to provide Bungie insight on why Destiny 2 isn’t performing as well as expected, one player shared on Reddit: “Bungie if you want to know why your revenue is shot, maybe look at how you price DLC in steam…. Seriously try explaining all this to a new player. This is mind blowing.”
Accompanying the post is an image of the full DLC section for Destiny 2 on Steam featuring fourteen different pieces of content with a combined value of $564.86.
Comparing Destiny 2 to another live service game, one player replied: “This is something WoW realised. Now they have two products. The subscription, which gets you every expansion except for the newest one, and then the newest expansion itself. That’s it.”
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“At any given time, it’s $100 to buy the current content and $100 to buy the upcoming content. That doesn’t include any old parts of the game. Imagine being a new player and seeing those price tags. Maybe revenue is half of what Bungie projected for a reason,” remarked another critical player.
A handful of the responses given defended Bungie highlighting that a lot of the DLC listed on Steam is not required to get the full experience.
If a new player purchased the following DLC they would have access to all of Destiny 2’s live content:
| Destiny 2 DLC | Price |
|---|---|
| Lightfall + Annual Pass | $99.99 |
| Destiny 2: Legacy Collection (2023) | $59.99 |
| Armory Collection (30th Anniv. & Forsaken Pack) | $29.99 |
| The Witch Queen Dungeon Key | 2000 Silver ($19.99) |
| The Final Shape + Annual Pass | $99.99 |
That totals 5 DLCs for a combined cost of $310. Technically, The Final Shape is only required to use the Tessellation Exotic Fusion Rifle so New Lights can pass on that to save money.
Many in the community still view this as being a steep cost to get into Destiny 2 and it’s not clear how a newcomer is supposed to know which DLC to buy in the first place.