Bungie was once the king of the shooter industry, thanks to Halo. The company has experienced a lot of success since with Destiny, but the developer has found times tougher recently. Now, we’ve learned that Bungie has reportedly toyed with the idea of paid subscriptions for Destiny in the past, and even contemplated removing certain free cosmetics for players.
Between accusations of art theft and morale dropping because of Marathon, Bungie has seen better days. But the company’s antics have been highlighted even further by a recent report suggesting Bungie wanted to implement a paid model, and nearly took away free cosmetics out of fear of the items hurting microtransactions.
Destiny Nearly Had Paid Subscriptions
Gaming journalist Destin Legarie has built up a solid reputation within the industry. In a recent video on his YouTube channel, he discussed past and present goings-on with Bungie—as told by former Bungie employees who spoke to him about Destiny and Marathon.
Legaries claims: “In one meeting, adding a subscription to Destiny was brought up, only to be vehemently shut down by staff.”
He says a former employee said: “Everything happening to Bungie is because of greed.” This was highlighted by another employee who claimed: “There was a concern about Trials of Osiris PvP armor being too attractive with its glow effect. The worry was that it was too good and would impact Eververse sales.“
Ergo, the free armor players could obtain from being successful in PvP was better than the paid items in the store. The former employee says this nearly led to “Almost blocking Expanded Trials Accessory Glows to protect Eververse sales.“
As always, these are reports and thoughts from former staff members, so take the words with a pinch of salt. However, a lot of this is quite damning and doesn’t shine Bungie in the best of light.
The video goes on to dissect Bungie’s management and other practices in the company.
With concerns over Marathon and unhappy players, where does Bungie go from here? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below. Our Insider Gaming forum also has daily discussions for topics such as this.
Also, check out the latest on Destiny: Rising’s closed beta test beginning on May 29.
Andy is Insider Gaming's Senior Evergreen Editor and has been in the games journalism sphere in one way or another for over 7 years. His video game taste is as…
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