14 DAY TRIAL // When the development team at Bungie launched the new microtransaction system for Destiny, it also suggested that its existence would allow the company to deliver a lot of content for free to the player community, but it seems that Activision has other ideas for the social shooter.
Eric Hirshberg, the chief executive officer of the publishing division at the company, is quoted by Gamespot as explaining to an analyst that both classic paid expansions, like the recent The Taken King, and real-world money-powered transactions can coexist when it comes to the game.
He states, "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 executive was not clear on which of the two Activision is prioritizing, but he added that no major shift in strategy was being planned for Destiny at that moment.
Hirshberg also says that most players spend around three hours every day with the social shooter, which represents a solid performance for a game that was initially introduced in 2014.
25 million players have registered an account so far, although not all of them are currently playing, and the title can gain a wide range of new converts over the holiday season.
This solid engagement is what allows Bungie and Activision to take into account both microtransactions and paid expansions for the future of Destiny.
November should bring a new big update
Bungie is aware that the player community is waiting for more tweaks to the core mechanics and an improvement to the overall balance.
A new major update is supposed to arrive before the end of the month, but the studio has not offered details on exactly what changes it is planning to make.
Presumably before the end of the year, Destiny will get more cosmetic elements, probably mostly emotes, which can be bought using the new Silver currency, which in turn needs to be obtained with real-world money.
At the same time, Bungie will be under pressure to deliver some of the free content, including quests and missions, which is supposed to be produced by the live team that uses the revenue extracted from microtransactions.
Given that The Taken King arrived in the fall, a new major expansion for Destiny could be announced in December to actually launch in March or April of next year.
Rumors are also saying that a full sequel to Destiny is in development at the moment and will be launched in late 2016 on the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One.
No official statement about the issue has been made by Activision, and no clue about the new game's existence has been found in the recent financial statements of the publisher.