"We want players to know what something costs before they buy it". The Eververse store will still sell other items

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Bungie To Remove Paid Loot Boxes From Destiny 2 Next Season

Since splitting from Activision, Destiny 2 developer Bungie has since went on to release their latest major expansion, Shadowkeep. While players have been able to purchase in-game loot boxes called “Bright Engrams” for cosmetic items, the company is now removing them going forward. Destiny 2 director Luke Smith announced in a lengthy “Director’s Cut” blog post on Wednesday that Bungie is removing the ability for players to purchase Bright Engrams, which are essentially paid loot boxes. A Bright Engram can be purchased in the Eververse store using Silver, an in-game currency that can be purchased with real money, and decoded to reveal random shaders, emotes and more.

The randomized “Bright Engram” loot boxes will still remain in the game, but they’ll exclusively be available for free for players to earn through the free-to-play portion of the season pass; players won’t be able to spend real-world money on them anymore. Players will still be able to purchase items from the Eververse Store with a free in-game currency called Bright Dust, should they want a premium item without having to shell out the cash. (Obviously, Bungie isn’t too generous when it comes to distributing the free resource, given that it wants players to pay for things. The pool of Bright Dust items also tends to include only older cosmetics from prior seasons.)

Luke Smith saying:

“We want players to know what something costs before they buy it”

The way Bright Engrams worked and were positioned to entice players has, like most other implementations of loot boxes, been criticized in the past. The loot box debate has evolved greatly since 2017, the year Destiny 2 launched, and so has Bungie’s business model for the game. With others in the industry backing off of loot boxes and many publishers wary of a regulatory crackdown, it’s not the biggest shock to see Destiny 2 double down on upfront purchases and its $10 season passes instead.

EA, in particular, has borne the brunt of the backlash against loot boxes. Star Wars: Battlefront 2 was famously ridiculed for including pay-to-win loot boxes at its launch, leading to the most down voted comment in Reddit history. Representatives from the company spoke in front of a UK parliamentary panel where they described loot boxes as “surprise mechanics” that players find “quite ethical and quite fun.”

The tide seems to be changing as of late. Fortnite is a free-to-play battle royale shooter that’s completely dependent on cosmetic loot boxes and a battle pass. EA subsequently copied that model with Apex Legends. Destiny 2 seems to be emulating that model also on some level. The game shifted to a free-to-play model when Shadowkeep launched and allowed players to purchase seasonal passes if desired. With the removal of loot boxes from paid content, this may lead to other publishers following suit.

The gaming industry, in general, has seen a massive backlash against randomized loot boxes in the past year; there’s now talk of legislation that would ban selling the items to minors, and Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft have all committed to disclosing the odds of getting items from loot boxes in future titles. Developers Activision Blizzard, Bandai Namco, Bethesda, Bungie, EA, Take-Two Interactive, Ubisoft, Warner Bros., and Wizards of the Coast have also made similar pledges.