Today, Bungie announced that Destiny 2 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC is going free-to-play. More specifically, the base game of Destiny 2 and all the content from its first year of expansions are going free-to-play, and will be renamed Destiny 2: New Light. But this is all that will be free-to-play. Future expansions, such as the upcoming Shadowkeep, will cost the usual expansion price.

In addition to featuring base Destiny 2 and its first year of content, Destiny 2: New Light will also allow players to experience the original Destiny and its story, starting players at the Cosmodrome.

At the moment of publishing, Bungie hasn't announced Destiny 3, so it's unclear if this new free-to-play structure will carry over to the third installment, but presumably it will. Once you go free-to-play, you rarely go back.

Free-to-play obviously has its benefits, for example you attract a much larger swath of players. However, if there isn't a steady stream of content that base is even more likely to leave because of the lack of financial investment up front. Further, free-to-play is only effective if you have an effective monetization model in place. Expansion helps keep players re-engage players, but nailing the more granular monetization is going to be much more important for Bungie.

Destiny 2 is currently available for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.



Posted: Jun 06, 2019 3:43 pm
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: https://comicbook.com/gaming/2019/06/06/destiny-2-is-going-free-to-play-2/