Should Destiny adopt subscription model, or keep premium expansions?

[Mizeris Lutz Ether Lanai]

Neither of them will work anymore. If they want to continue down the GaaS model its gotta be microtransactions for cosmetics. Why would I pay monthly or a large sum every few months when there are options in the market that provide me content for free.

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Because the guns still feel the best in this one.

Personally I play this game enough that I save all kinds of money not buying other things, so I'd like them to keep the current model but charge more for the annual pass so they can do story content - and less repetitive quests - as well. But I know most people would rebel at that idea.

 

[commish]

Most of the expansions give such little content. No way on earth I'd pay for a subscription. Hell, I don't even want to pay for the expansions. I'd prefer fees for cosmetics. If Fortnight can make a few billion off just that, I'm sure bungie can work something out. For example, allow me to buy a variety of spaceships.

 

[pants]

IMO a game like Destiny thrives on a healthy player population, and so Bungie should be more interested in finding ways for new players to engage with existing content instead of segregating their existing populations any further than they have to.

With that in mind, a subscription model would polarize the existing population in unhealthy ways and should probably be avoided like the plague – especially if you are looking at things like the future of Gambit and the Crucible (which would actively suffer).

I've said this before, but the #1 game in the world right now is an iterative client that is free to download, supports crossplay between multiple platforms, features a robust free (and regularly updated!) PvP sandbox that exists adjacent to a completely different PvE experience, both of which are subsidized by different (but interlinked!) revenue models.

Now I'm not saying Destiny should be Fortnite, but I am saying there are a ton of valuable lessons to be learned from the success of a market leader and the landscape of today versus 2014, and if Bungie is smart then they're already paying attention.

 

[Ishmae1]

I've been a big player / supporter of Destiny 1 / 2, but after the Black Armory LL requirements and me being a relatively filthy casual (~570LL), I think I'm out on supporting early content until I can get a sense of what I can do as a non-hardcore player. I purchased the season pass and updates blindly, and feel that I've been very stung by it because I get nothing out of it. Since they seem to have a pattern of fixing flow at a later time and pulling up the casual players when it's required, it's personally no longer worth my time to ride along with the game as it develops.

I would like to see them continue to support 2 rather than completely reset with 3 and start this all over again, however. If that means subbing, I think I'd still wait until there's a good deal of (non PvP) content ahead of me before subbing however; I don't have time to keep up with the bleeding edge in order to experience anything new.

 

[pants]

Bungie has made their coffin with the Destiny IP, and what I mean by that is there are certain expectations that should be met or exceeded. Graphics, sound, tight controls, etc. You know, the expensive stuff. Finding out a model that will not piss most people off, but make them money, in this day and age is going to be a challenge once you realize that they also have to meet or exceed (most likely exceed) the graphics, sound and controls of Destiny 2 (overall Destiny 2 as a whole). Top that off with the split with Activision, I'd say Bungie is in quite a tough spot come D3. However, I do not think F2P is going to be a reasonable option for them long term, if it's an option at all.

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Destiny has already been F2P in virtually everything but official designation, if you're wondering what that would look like; not only was Vanilla D2 given away for free with PS+ and the Blizzard launcher, but exists as a game you can regularly pick up for $5 to $10 dollars (which is basically the overhead of housing the physical disc itself) and you're given a surprisingly generous block of content with that access.

IMO, if it weren't for the value perception (and upset retailers) you could give away Destiny 2 for free forever at this point and it would lead to much more revenue overall, in terms of DLC conversion, than trying to squeeze more money out of its retail presence. Judging by how often it was made available, that seems to have been observed by people much closer to Destiny's success than myself.

Now I'm not saying "F2P" as we know it is the right answer for a studio the size / caliber of Bungie, but its not a stretch to see how they have already benefited from dropping the primary barriers to entry that exist today.

 

[Kildrek]

Elder Scroll Online does very well with it's optional subscripts service with plenty of content and cosmetics.

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To be fair, they started with a subscription and then went buy to play. I subscribed for a few months in the beginning and ultimately returned after it was buy to play.

I'm talking about going from buy to play and transitioning into subscription based.

 

[TheGhost]

To be fair, they started with a subscription and then went buy to play. I subscribed for a few months in the beginning and ultimately returned after it was buy to play.

I'm talking about going from buy to play and transitioning into subscription based.

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Subscription would have to be optional, too many copy cat games offer it for free

 

[Lump]

Ideally, I'd say copy the Guild Wars 2 model of expansions and story releases.

 

[Carolina Reaper]

They've proven time and time again they can't produce enough quality content to support a subscription-based model.

 

[Maple]

I would pay for a subscription model if Bungie could provide consistent updates every 3-4 months. And I think they could.

It's kind of crazy...WoW players still pay $15 per month and $60 every two years for an expansion. That just absolutely wouldn't fly with any other game, yet WoW gets a pass....even though there are long periods where there just isn't any new content and players are left sitting there for 8 months until a new expansion drops. No other game could really get away with that these days.

 

[Bold One]

It would be next to impossible to push a sub model, console players are not conditioned to that style of delivery

 

[HiredN00bs]

I don't know if Bungie has the manpower to sustain a subscription model like WoW or even attempt the freemium route like Warframe. They seem to be in a weird place. My preferred route would be to just make the game subscription based and have them parse out content on a pretty regular basis but that would mean everything I ever get would move up with me if I want. No more eververse(or at least give just cosmetic reasons to exist), give me back my D1 shaders and emblems and especially emotes (ridiculous those didn't follow over, what did Gaul destroy our ability to dance?). Make all patrol areas from D1 accessible although that might not be a good thing if the player base is so spread thin you can't find enough people to make a public or EP happen.

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Bringing in the old destinations isn't as trivial a task as it might seem, mostly because AI and lighting changed between titles.