Summary
Destiny 2has been using the seasonal model for a long time now, and it’s arguably the go-to success story in the industry when it comes to reviving a game as a live-service title, considering the state the looter-shooter was in after Curse of Osiris. Things will start to change for the game asDestiny 2’s The Final Shape introduces episodesin place of seasons, and this will likely have an impact both on the live-service model used by Bungie and the actual content included in these fourth-month releases. Still, as much as Bungie’s flagship game has been successful, it has faced multiple controversies. The most recent is about returning cosmetics from season passes, which shows once again why more games should useHalo Infinite’s approach, instead.
Halo Infinitehas not been a successful live-service game ever since it was released, and its shortcomings have often been glaring and somewhat unexpected from such a longstanding and beloved franchise. Yet, one of the things that 343 Industries has been lauded for isHalo Infinite’s approach to battle passes, which is refreshing in an industry where live-service games are ever more common. What the game does thatDestiny 2lacks is a way to purchase long-gone season passes and choose which ones to level up at any given moment, providing its respective rewards when reaching their associated milestones.
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Destiny 2’s Cosmetics Controversy Further Proves Halo Infinite’s Season Passes Work
Destiny 2’s Season of the Worthy Flashback eventlaunched this week in Season of the Witch and will go on for another couple of weeks, and the whole idea behind it was to provide players with a second chance to get Season 10 cosmetics. Since all season passes inDestiny 2are vaulted with the start of the following season, players have time and again complained that this is a rather FOMO-inducing approach that doesn’t do anyone any favors.
When Bungie initially stated that old season pass cosmetics were coming back, players assumed they would have been available for Bright Dust as well as Silver, but the truth is worse than that. Not only are all the Season of the Worthy cosmetics inDestiny 2exclusively available for real money, but they collectively amount to a little over $80 compared to the $10 cost of the original season pass. This called for conversations about microtransaction prices in the game, but more importantly, it should call for an industry-wide discussion about season passes.
The wayHalo Infinitehandles its battle passes makes sense because it’s respectful of the time investment on the players' end, as well as how much value for their buck they can get. The main allure ofseason passes inDestiny 2is that they also come with the associated seasonal content behind them, and the cosmetics can be a nice boost to have on top. However, in no way, shape, or form does the game guarantee players ways to obtain all the cosmetics in the season pass outside of playing for many hours each season. Even the seasonal challenges are time-gated or can have very demanding requirements to complete.
As such, allowing players to purchase a given season pass even past its expiration date, as well as activating any season pass at any given time, would give gamers more of a reason to engage with the game and do so at their own pace, without FOMO. This is not something that only Bungie should do, even thoughDestiny 2’s The Final Shape would be a great time to do so, but rather it should become the new golden standard for anygames with battle passes. If there’s a lesson worth learning fromHalo Infiniteis that showing players that games respect their time and money is as important as a good gameplay offering.
Destiny 2is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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