On December 9, Bungie will release The Dark Below, a new expansion pack for Destiny. For $US20, you’ll get some new story missions, some multiplayer maps, a raid and two new strikes. Unless you’re on Xbox.
Yep, Sony’s snagged themselves yet another Destiny exclusive: one of The Dark Below‘s strike missions — you know, the ones where you and two other players go through quasi-dungeons and take on powerful bosses — is only for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. Bungie says the exclusive is until “at least” fall of 2015, which means that for at least the next year, Xbox players will miss out on a large chunk of The Dark Below.
That’s on top of the already-PlayStation-exclusive Dust Palace strike, so if you’re keeping track, by the second week of December, PlayStation owners will have eight strikes while Xbox players only have six. Of course, it’s been clear for months now that Bungie has firmly sided with Sony in the battle for your living room, but that hasn’t stopped Xbox fans from feeling ripped off. How can you blame them? They’re paying the same amount of money as PlayStation players, yet getting less stuff.
It’s yet another example of video game console warfare having a negative effect on the people who actually play games. Forum soldiers and fanboys might enjoy this sort of exclusivity nonsense, and it might help Sony’s bottom line, but for Xbox owners who have been playing and enjoying Destiny, this is really shitty. (Similarly, Microsoft’s timed exclusive deal for next year’s Rise of the Tomb Raider has justifiably annoyed PlayStation fans who want to check out Lara Croft’s next adventure.)
This all might not be as bad if The Dark Below was packed full o’ things to do, but even with the PlayStation-exclusive strike, Destiny‘s first expansion isn’t really all that meaty. Unless the new story missions add some variety to Destiny‘s vanilla “deploy ghost -> fight waves of enemies” structure, you’re essentially paying $US20 for a raid and two strikes, which makes it particularly aggravating that some people won’t get one of those strikes (for at least a year) simply because they chose to play the game on the platform Bungie likes least.
Console exclusivity might have saved some developers’ hides over the past few years — just ask the folks behind Titanfall — but this sort of practice is just going to breed more resentment in the people who play games, and who could blame them?
Comments
91 responses to “Destiny’s New DLC Kinda Screws Over Xbox Players”
Ive enjoyed my time with Destiny but I have my lvl30 titan so Im content. If I still cared this would infuriate me but honestly Im done with this game. Maybe I will give it a revisit after Im done with CoD, Inquisition and Bloodborne but thats a big maybe.
My problem is that I don’t want to be done with it. I’m having a ton of fun but I’d hate myself on so many different levels if I brought this DLC. =(
Yeahhhh so nobody actually cares about Destiny anymore anyways
Meanwhile Xbox has Forza Horizon 2 which works and Sony has driveclub which doesn’t
Xbox has sunset overdrive and Sony has nothing… Sony is all fluff :p
Hahahaha oh man this is better than tv all you xbox peeps just needa shut ya lips and just enjoy your console ffs. All you xboners ever do is whine about it and rip on ps4 when there is nothing wrong with it. If you wanted the extra dlc content you should of got a ps4. You get cod maps early so quit your whining lol this article is a big joke and is proof of the arrogance on xbox live.
Thats not what the issue is with this DLC. Yes Call of Duty players have always gotten the map packs early on the Xbox but there wasnt stuff missing from them when they came out on the Playstation. Activision and Bungie have chosen to leave content out of the expansion packs and charge Xbox players the same price. THATS the difference, I paid full price for the season pass and I expect to receive all of the content that comes with that season pass. But instead I’m not getting that simply because I didnt buy a PS4 and simply because Sony forked out a bunch of money to actually block me from getting all of the content I have paid for.
Yes having to wait a month or two for a map pack on Call of Duty can suck but nothing was missing when you bought it, even though it was later, now these companies are resorting to charging gamers like me full price for DLC but not letting me have all the content because I didnt buy the system they cuddled up to for a big pay day. That is completely anti-gamer and has nothing to do with fanboy crap on which system is better
I’m not paying another $500 for essentially the same console just for DLC. Especially since I don’t play Destiny any more.
Yeeeeep. I’m only level 29 but I’ve put so many hours in. Turned it on today for about 5 mins and was bored.
I’m not paying the same amount on xbox when Sony player’s get more for the same price
“Expansion” they say. This has about 30% of the content of patches in real mmo’s. To charge $20 dollars while at the same time reducing the already wanting content in this “xpac” for half the player base is pure corporate greed and a complete betrayal to fans
So glad I chose Wii U. I don’t have to worry about this at all. Or the game……at all…
I’m so glad I stuck to my sega master system. I don’t have to worry about 1080p, 30fps, dlc or any of that!
I have a steel hoop and a stick that I use to push it down the street…
Steel hoop, you were lucky! I had to make my hoop out of paper mache stuck together with only my own saliva.
Luxury! We used to dream of a paper mache hoop with a stick.
We used to have to get out of the lake at six o’clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of ‘ot gravel, work twenty hour day at mill for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were lucky!
i only had an onion.
Me too… but I wore mine on my belt as was the style at the time…
….now, what was i talking about?
Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on ’em. Gimme five bees for a quarter, you’d say.
…. And then our dad’s would kill us and dance on our graves singing haleluja.
We used to have to get up out of the shoebox at 12 o’clock at night and lick the road clean with our tongues. We had half a handful of freezing cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at the mill for fourpence every six years, and when we got home, our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife.
Here I am with my bowl of salt.
You have paper!? I’m still making do with a couple of rocks.
Everything from here up to @darren is magical. Spontaneous montypythonisation is gold.
Seems a bit light on, which is disappointing, and expensive. I got the season pass with the LE, but if I hadn’t I’m not sure if buy this.
Haha i paid $68 for the whole game. As if I’m paying $20 for 1 strike and 1 mission on xbox
I feel I got my value out of the base game, have played a lot, and will play this. It is a bit less chunky than I’d expect though.
I like to think of it as Microsoft got Insomniac and Sony got a part of Bungie. PS owners are losing out on an entire game 🙁 Sunset Overdrive 🙁
Is there somewhere we can trade Destiny timed exclusive content for a PS4 copy of Sunset Overdrive ? 🙁
I kinda get the entire exclusive game thing, but exclusive content for a game already released… where one gets more for the same amount of money is pretty poor.
Get used to it Jason. Proper exclusive games will be limited to first party studios only. Of course, we knew this months ago so why is it article-worthy again now? Will we see yet another post about Xbox owners losing out when the second DLC comes out with more exclusive stuff for Sony?
Well we probably shouldn’t let up on it. The reason people are so comfortable pulling this sort of crap is due at least in part to not many people complaining when the XBOX 360 scored exclusive content over the PS3.
As consumers all we can really do to combat this is increase the negative impact of selling out your user base to the point where the cons outweigh the pros.
To be fair – last generation it was generally MS timed exclusive content (COD etc), Sony exclusive content (Ubi/Bats).
Sony people could wait, MS people SOL. Want that COD expansion on PS3? Wait 6 weeks. Want those exclusive AC3 missions on 360? Too bad.
But this whole – Sony paid for exclusive content, MS owners can buy the dlc for the same price with less content – is a generally new animal this generation.
And yet MS are cast as the pantomime villains. It’s bonkers.
As much as I hate to admit it I’m firmly in the Microsoft camp. I’ve got a Surface Pro*, I’ve got a Lumia 1520, I’ve owned like four or five 360s**, Windows 8 is my favourite OS by a wide margin, I’ve had an XBOX One since launch and I actually use Kinect voice-commands on a daily basis. All that said, Microsoft are villains on this topic. They may not be the only villain but they are definitely one of them. They copped a lot of flak for abandoning gamers with the XBOX One’s reveal but the fact remains they chase exclusivity and they still chase it hard.
I can’t stand here and condemn Sony for buying timed exclusivity (or even Bungie for offering timed exclusivity) without at least admitting that last generation Microsoft’s exclusivity agreements were a problem. They played a big part in setting the table for these sorts of deals to be made.
Also let’s not forget that the original plans for the XBOX One were built knowing consumers would hate them but publishers would be willing to trade multi-platform releases for exclusives that can’t be resold. In Microsoft’s ideal world at this point in the generation we would have given up complaining about not being able to sell our games and a few Sony holdouts would be sitting here complaining that every other game was an XBOX One exclusive.
*I skipped the 2 but I have the original Surface Pro and the Surface Pro 3, and not the cheap models either.
**I brought them rather than wait the 2 weeks it takes to get the RRoD problems fixed, and I don’t regret that in the slightest.
I gotta agree with you here – Sony may not have started the exclusive DLC thing but they are sure trying hard to hit back especially at Microsoft for doing it in the past…
Now its just created the issue for everyone but at the same time when your consoles are so damn similar you need that edge to get your product out there.
I’ll also dare say its microsofts fault for PS+ but thats another issue another day and it ended out for somewhat better results for Sony users in the long run.
Well I’m sure I’ll plenty of games to keep me busy. Played Destiny for two or so weeks solid but haven’t touched it since. Maybe I’ll pick it up and start again in a year or so.
I have a theory that this ‘exclusivity’ deal is being engineered (or if not engineered, then at least exploited) by Microsoft to a) get people to put Destiny down for Halo releases, and b) get people to pick Destiny back up when the Destiny DLC drops at a later date.
I’d almost say you’re onto something but it already seems pretty obvious this is in fact Activisions fore-site in getting its beloved xbox call of dutiers back just in time for launch.
…At least that’s what my tin-foil hat is telling me.
Example A. of what I stated above ie. MS always cast as the villain, regardless of Sony’s actions.
“Sony’s exclusive content deal was/is engineered/exploited by MS.”
Seriously? If you were being sarcastic though – good show!
I’m pretty sure we knew months ago that some of the DLC content would be timed exclusive on PS4 so there’s no sense getting it a huff about it now.
I play Destiny with my wife almost every night, though as more games are coming out we’re splitting that time with them.
Yup we knew months ago that some of the base game and dlc content would be timed exclusives for at least a year. But that doesnt stop anyone from talking about it being a shitty practice and anti consumer.
I had no idea the DLC was adding more exclusive content, I knew about the timed stuff in it already and was understandably patient about that but this is seriously a huge slap in the face.
I’m easy pleased with a new raid!
Same. Also, really looking forward to taking down a Strike levelled Wizard/Witch.
On that note, are you up for some action tonight? I’m yet to do Weekly Heroic on 28 or Nightfall if you keen!
Oooh mang, I want to play so bad but I have emotionally neglected my loving partner so promised to do some stuff with her tonight Xbox free lol. I need to do both, if you’re a loner on Friday night like me are you keen?
Friday night sounds good furritooooooooooooo.
I may get on tonight if your keen for the weekly heroic, jimmady been hounding me all week for weekly on 28. Have you done a Nightfall Strike?
I’ve done last weeks nightfall strike only, yet to do this one. As long as you have the right elemental damage (void this time) I found it easier than the weekly heroic.
Would you be up for the raid tomorrow night? I haven’t gone in at all so far this week and @highperformance may also be down.
Got pretty full schedule next few weeks with the Melbourne move, I may have a window saturday night but cant commit to anything, Norton is also on call.
I might be able to get on tonight for a bit fellas, maybe can sneak in a weekly or a Nightfall ;P @jackunit13 lol
Sorry dudes the time difference threw me out, I got on pretty early about 6pm here and was heading off around 9 when Jack came on, we got to the Nexus just 2 of us on lev 28 but couldn’t take him down.
No worries mate, Jack and I beat the Nexus with an exploit but as I explained to @jackunit13 about one of the greatest sporting heroes of the WWE era, Eddie Guerro had a motto with which to live life by:
“If you no cheatin, you no tryin”
Whats the exploit? VIVA LA RAZA!!
Spoilered so I don’t ruin it for the good people of this fine website:
We had a level 26 guy play with us on the Nightfall (crazy us for playing with him, I know) and we slowly worked our way to the Nexus. We got to the cave, Jack and I dropped down with our level 26 guy hiding behind a cave just below the drop into the arena and he stayed there and didn’t move. Jack and I killed the Minotaurs to spawn the boss, then we ran around shooting ’til we died.We quit out, then the guy in the cave invited us back to the game whilst we were still in a party. Stayed up top of the cave, Jack and I would shoot him until a Minotaur came which we killed then went back to it. The Minotaur got us a few times, but we just quit and rejoined.
VIVA LA RAZAAAAA
Aw yea I’ve heard you can
VIVA LA RAZAAA your way through itWell if I hadn’t bought the digital deluxe I wouldn’t have bought this DLC anyway
For that price, Playstation owners are getting screwed too.
Not as bad as any fans in the UK – £20 (US$32) per DLC, apparently. Cos Activision doesn’t do exchange rates.
I wonder how much it’ll be in Australian dollars.
I’d imagine around the $25 mark, going by the expansion pass cost difference (US$35/AU$40). It won’t be AU$20, that’s for sure.
Probably the most appropriate comment on the whole subject. =P
Obligatory PC Master race comment!
How well does Destiny run on your PC?
Better than Watch Dogs, a blank screen runs smoother than silky smooth 15 FPS
A Blank screens framerate is lower than 1fps. It’s 1futo.
1 Frame Until Turned OnRuns great… I don’t end every gaming session with the feeling of being violated by Bungie =P
I don’t feel violated playing Destiny, but it’s certainly funnier than @shadowstealer7 answer.
Why even bother releasing it a year later? How many people still be playing it let alone buy old DLC for $20
They took out a small piece of the DLC not the whole thing.
I don’t care about the armour, it’s blue/rare level and mostly cosmetic. I don’t care about the ships they are cosmetic. The guns are a little annoying but once again their is a wide variety of guns so not too bad.
But 25% of the strikes are now going to be PS4 Exclusive for nearly another year. And is this setting a precedent that every piece of DLC will include a chunk XBoxers can’t have? And aren’t they just screwing themselves over? Why buy Destiny DLC for my XBox version, it’s missing bits.
Why do I get the feeling that those story missions were cut from the original game?
Wouldn’t give another penny to the makers of this game. The first was so average and lacking in content
XBL does have smoother servers tho compared to PSN
Chuckle……..
Well all I can say is that if I didn’t screw myself getting the collectors edition of this meh game I would not be getting this meh amount DLC for that ludicrous price of $20.
To be frank I think everyone should get this abysmal content for free in a patch the same way other MMO’s do. Paid expansive should be for whole new worlds etc not here have another bullet sponge for a third price of the game.
Other Rant:
The fact that Xbox owners pay the same for less when there is bugger all there in the DLC to begin with is also offensive. It pisses me off the same way that I cannot play the new TR on my PC (or even damn PS4) without buying an Xbox.
Triple A devs are going to keep going bust if they keep this up as even the people who cave rather than voting with their wallet are going to turn around and go, you know what F U!
I dream of a future where CD Projekt Red is the norm rather than the exception.
I dunno man.
If you’d BOUGHT TR2 for your PC and got %20 less content, thatd be comparable. Or paid the same amount and had to wait a year for %20 of the content other users/platforms got at launch, thatd be comparable.
As it stands, you’ll get %100 of TR2 6 months later, probably for cheaper. And while that sucks if you’ve really been hanging out for it, you’ve paid not a cent in the meantime.
If you went to a restaurant and had to wait a significant amount of time for %20 of your order, that you’d paid the same amount for as the diner beside you, who got it ALL in a timely fashion. Rather than just being told to come back the next night. At least you could go elsewhere in the meantime, and hadn’t already compromised your dinner budget.
Not the best analogy, but somewhat valid.
I thought they confirmed it was RotTR was timed exclusive?
well….shouldnt have bought an xbone. thats where they go wrong.
The PS4 might be the ideal console for you, but some people have reasons for wanting the XB1.
Its also funny that destiny has sold more on xbox. Oh well NEXT.
This isn’t news, it’s been known for a long time.
It’s also no different to Microsoft’s exclusivity deals. They were notorious for it last gen. So why rip Sony a new one in this article and only give Microsoft a small footnote about Tomb Raider?
That being said, I’m not a fan of platform exclusivity of any form – whether that’s from Sony or Microsoft.
Exclusivity is garbage either way, but this I find extra irritating. An entire year quite a bit longer than other timed exclusivity deals I can think of, and it’s also the only exclusivity deal I can think of where one platform gets less content for the same price. And it’s not like the Assassin’s Creed games where PlayStation gets an extra 10 minute mission — this is a significant portion of the DLC and strikes make up most of the endgame content.
Either delay the whole DLC or charge less for it and sell the other half separately in a year’s time. Why do Xbox owners have to wait a year to play something they’ve already bought?
I do have to admit this partial exclusivity is…odd. I suppose Sony wanted as much content exclusive as possible, but the entire DLC was a bridge too far. But yes, very odd. And I very frustrating for Xbox owners, I can imagine.
At least there is a release date for it on Xbox, though yes a year is too long. I remember the Second Assault DLC on BF4, it was for an undetermined amount of time, so anyone on PS or PC actually had no idea when they would get it (I think it ended up being a few months).
Kinda evens out for the plethora of times that PlayStation/PC got screwed in favour of Xbox.
Xbox throws its weight around all the time with exclusives. Xbox has encouraged this type of behaviour and they are still getting creamed in sales. Good on Sony…
ps4 owner here and this pisses me off, what happened to just making games for the love of it and then letting as many people as possible play it…. This industry is just a former shadow of it self. the games may be better in some ways but the corporate bullshit holds them back so much.
For some reason this really pisses me off as a xbox player. 25% more content for Sony. Thats some bullshit right there. Outfit exclusives are one thing this is just ridiculous. Imagine the outcry if cinema chains were given different versions of films by studios.
If you don’t buy the DLC, does that really mean you miss out on the extra bounty slots? That comes off as really weird to me. It’s something that would ordinarily be patched in, right?
I’m not sure of the answer to that but it’s not uncommon for free-to-play MMORPGs to include features in their content packs like this and Destiny seems to be following a similar model. Gear is pretty much the only major selling point of this sort of DLC, so by bundling in general quality of life features it makes it so that people who are late to the party can’t skip the DLC packs that are comprised primarily of obsolete gear and Strikes.
I’m expecting to see DLC coming with a third sub-class for each class.
For the same price? God that’s awful.
$20 hahahahahahaa oh you’re serious, well um would you like your crazy pills with a side of ground zeros?
Timed exclusives have always been around. And they always will be, however, most timed exclusives are from 2 weeks to a month, which I’m pretty sure is what most of the XBOX community thought was going to happen when they bought the game in the first place. Making the community wait a year is absurd. Especially since it was the XBOX community that raised BUNGIE to where it is today.
Regardless of what BUNGIE thinks of the people over at MICROSOFT, it’s not them that they are punishing… it’s the players, the very people who have been playing HALO since the original XBOX and only stuck with the console so long because of the awesomeness that BUNGIE delivered again and again.
Shame on you BUNGIE for turning your back on the people who helped you become who you are today. You’ve sold out and spat in the faces of the people who have loved you since they were children.
I for one will be trading my copy of DESTINY first chance I get, and will discourage any of my friends and family from making the same mistake I did.
I loved you BUNGIE… and you broke my heart :'(
wow well im glad i got bored of this game quickly. nice to see developers still caving to hardware makers and not the other way around… gg shafting a large portion of you player base 🙂
Im a big Bungie-fan, and have been since halo 1, but this pisses me off 🙁
this is bullpoopies! I thought Bungie was an xbox franchise i mean come on until reach the only halo game they didn’t make was Halo Wars and that game sucked. Dick move bungie!