Destiny’s upcoming expansion The Taken King was officially announced during E3 last week after previous leaks. Many are excited to see this giant expansion arrive in September, but a number of fans have also spoken out about the expansion’s high price tag, which Bungie is now defending.
Destiny’s The Taken King expansion will retail for $39.99, which is 2/3 the cost that Destiny was at its original launch. There will also be other options, including the Legendary Edition at $59.99 that will include not only The Taken King expansion, but also the original base Destiny game, and the two previous expansions, The Dark Below and House of Wolves.
In an interview with Eurogamer, The Taken King’s Creative Director Luke Smith explained their reasoning for this pricing and how he feels it more than deserves the price tag associated.
“So, purchasers get a big, rich campaign. Fully voiced cinematics and the story of what happens when an angry alien god wages war on a solar system, all with a satisfying conclusion. You also have a new subclass to pursue and unlock. We also have a bunch of new strikes – we’re not yet talking about how many – and a new raid. We’re showing two new PVP modes and four PVP maps this week, and it’s a fairly safe bet we’re not done yet showing things off. So I’m fairly excited about the value proposition. We’re calling this a major expansion because it is. We’re giving people a whole new place to go, that new destination…”
Smith also went further to say that he believes fans will understand the pricing more as they reveal more about The Taken King in the coming months, as it won’t be released until September 15.
The other big point of contention with The Taken King is that there are pieces of exclusive content that are only available if you buy the $79.99 Collectors Edition, which also comes with all of the previous releases of the game and the new expansion. This is a problem, as those who already own the original game and DLC will have to pay this much more for something exclusive like this.
Smith didn’t give an answer to whether or not this would come as DLC later, but hopefully it will because otherwise it would be a poor decision by Bungie. The good news is that previous season pass owners will get some special content, as we learned first hand the other day in our interview.
