Destiny 2 had a lot of hype around it when it first came out, but early players soon raised issues about a perceived lack of meaningful in-game content. This was a major issue for the game and, later on, the title saw two lacklustre expansions that players had to pay extra for. Both did not offer much. But then came the Destiny 2 Forsaken DLC, which took everyone by surprise.

Destiny 2: Forsaken was highly praised and it received the attention of fans as well as the reviewers. It scored very highly across the board and got a major part of the community back. With that said, Activision still believes that Destiny 2 is not performing as well as they expected, leading to the company giving away the base title for free.

Activision COO and president Coddy Johnson mentioned that the game was underperforming because its core players were not re-engaging with the title. The following is what he had to say in this regard:

“Part of it was also because we have not yet seen the full core reengage in ‘Destiny,’ which has led to the underperformance against our expectations to date. Some players we think are still in wait-and-see mode.”

Well, Mr Johnson, you would not be in this situation and giving the game away for free if you provided enough content in the first place and didn’t limit players so heavily. For instance, users could only play Forsaken if they had the previous DLCs, which were pretty useless if you ask me. Sure, there were a few guns that were worth the grind, but the story of each did not offer much.

The actual Destiny 2: Forsaken DLC, on the other hand, was much better and really what the fans had been asking for. But many players did not get it because they did not want to pay for the two expansions that you needed to get in order to play Forsaken.

Plus, Activision seems pretty confused regarding strategy. When you charge $60 for a game, you should not expect to make a lot of money on microtransactions. Destiny 2 was not, until Activision’s recent U-turn at least, a free-to-play game.

Bungie is a developer that has worked with the community to sort out the issues with the game. That is why there was so much hype around Forsaken to start with. That is why so many people came back to play the game, even though the DLC was overpriced. For players including me that ordered everything ahead of launch, the game costs at least $130.

You will pay more if you got the annual pass with the Forsaken expansion. That is a lot of money, keeping in mind what the game has to offer. While I have played the game in its entirety and I think that overall, it is a great experience, it is not worth such a high price.

At the end of the day, Activision has shot itself in the foot. Making the decision to bundle the first two expansions into Forsaken for free was a hard blow to the people that actually paid for them, as its ‘rewards’ were sub-par. Giving away the game for free is not going to do much for the Forsaken DLC, whatever Activision may think.

At the end of the day, Destiny 2 might be a game that has been fraught with issues, but that is due to Activision, not Bungie. For all of the flak it has received, the developer has listened to the community and responded accordingly ever since the game initially released.