In their latest earnings call, Activision reveals that microtransactions and paid DLC expansions likely both have a place in Destiny’s future.
When microtransactions came to Destiny in the form of purchasable emotes, much of the Destiny community was excited. Not just because the emotes gave a fun new way to express themselves, but because there was a rumor that broke at the same time saying the money earned by the Eververse Trading Company microtransaction system would go directly to pay for free expansions in Destiny’s Year Two.
Well, that may not be the case after all. In an earnings call today, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg said that Destiny’s microtransactions and paid DLC can co-exist, meaning players may be seeing both in the near future.
Hirshberg said that because both have sold well, there’s a place for both.
During the earnings call, an analyst asked a question concerning the rumored change in Destiny’s business model that would allow microtransactions to foot the bill for free expansions. Hirshberg passed by the question.
“We had a full year of expansions to the game that have been very well received and sold quite well. More recently, you’ve seen us introduce smaller, in-game purchases that allow people to customize their experience and express themselves; those have been very well received and have sold well also. I think we’ve already shown that DLC and microtransactions can co-exist and that our community is hungry for more great content.”
The engagement he’s referring to is another figure released today by Activision that Destiny has 25 million registered users, and for the players that continue to engage with Destiny, they are logging more than three hours per day in playtime.
“As far as any shifts in strategy, I don’t have any announcments today, but I think we have a lot of options at our disposal, and the reason for that of course is that we have such great engagement with this game.”
Even though the assumption of free DLC in Year Two was based off a rumor with no announcement made, many players are feeling slighted by Hirshberg’s comments. Even though Hirshberg does say there are many business models Destiny could take, it’s not hard for gamers at large to call out Activision, accusing them of money grabbing at every opportunity. With no formal announcement either way, this issue will stay up in the air until Destiny’s future DLC plans are revealed.
Would you be willing to pay for more Destiny expansions? Would that change how many cosmetic items you would buy in microtransactions?
Source: GameSpot
