Today, publisher Activision announced plans for a brand new exclusive quest in Destiny, a video game in which players travel space learning the true definition of corporate greed.
The good news: it’s a “never-before-seen, multi-stage mission in [upcoming expansion] The Taken King that will test the speed and strategic abilities of Destiny players in new ways.”
The bad news: you can only get it if you buy a can of Red Bull, a taurine-packed energy drink that tastes like a cross between licorice and turpentine.
Says Activision in a press release:
Activision Publishing, Inc. and Bungie, together with energy drink category leader Red Bull today announced a partnership that will bring an epic new quest to players of the popular sci-fi action adventure game franchise Destiny via custom-designed Red Bull® Energy Drink cans, inviting consumers across the United States and Canada to Become Legend, making this the first time a video-game, or any third party brand, has ever appeared on the iconic Red Bull can.
Access to the quest will be available on specially-marked cans of Red Bull and leverage themes of speed, tenacity and strategy inspired by the energy drink, through www.RedBullQuest.com. Each Red Bull can will also include bonus XP to help players prepare for this epic quest. Players can start using the bonus XP throughout the summer, with the in-game quest kicking off following the launch of The Taken King, the latest addition to the Destiny universe scheduled for release on September 15, 2015.
Put another way: Not content just to screw over Xbox players, Activision and Bungie have teamed up to also deny things to anyone who doesn’t want a heart attack by age 50. According to the fine print, this “epic new quest” will be Red Bull-exclusive from September 18 to December 31, as will an XP booster that bumps up your gains for half an hour or so. Forget the booster, though — it’s the quest that’s really got me peeved. Hardcore Destiny players have been looking forward to The Taken King not just because House of Wolves seems to have gotten things on the right track, but because it’s supposed to be full of new missions, strikes, and quests — more things to do in a game that seriously lacks things to do. And now we find out one of those quests is locked in a damn energy drink?
This disheartening news comes during a week when much of the Destiny community is beyond furious with Bungie and Activision for how they have treated and communicated with veteran players. It’s hard not to be even more pissed about this one, though. We’re not talking about some cosmetic emotes or snarky developer quotes — this is an actual quest in the game that you’ll need to go out and buy an energy drink to play. It’s worse than DLC.
Meanwhile, here is an ACTUAL QUOTE from an ACTUAL PRESS RELEASE:
Comments
93 responses to “New Destiny Quest Is Exclusive To… Red Bull”
Bungie just keeps shooting themselves in the foot, don’t they?
Slash and burn the franchise!
Don’t blame Bungie, their biggest mistake was getting into bed with Activision.
And absolutely no one forced them to do it.
No one forced them to do alienate their existing enthusiastic (and loyal to that point) console/platform fanbase of millions by restricting %30 of the DLC for a year in order to court a new fanbase (albeit one without the decade plus of loyalty) – that’s a key problem right there. That was the first instance of “annoying your existing customers quite deliberately in an attempt to garner new ones” and that was over a year before this Taken King debacle.
No one forced them to leave MS – indeed MS granted them their independence – and they sought out this deal with Activision, after surely courting more than one publisher from their position of “we created one of the biggest franchises of all time”.
No – while some marketing decisions were Activisions – EVERYTHING else that led them to Activision was Bungies decision.
It’s mainly on Bungie. Sorry.
So you think there were better options out there?
Bungie were looking for a partner to bring the Destiny world to us, a brand new 10 year franchise requiring a considerable investment. Getting the support of one of the top 3 publishers in the industry is not only a big bonus, but almost a requirement. Seeing how big Call of Duty is, in no small part thanks to Activision, getting them on board for this other FPS franchise was an easy thing to do for Bungie. At the end of the day, Activision are not a charity, and Bungie are not public servants.
Also, the exclusive partnerships were brokered by Activision, again, not Bungie. Again, this isn’t a charity, it’s a business. Making the deal with Sony was SMART. I can guarantee you that they lost ZERO Xbox fans solely because of the exclusive Sony content. They may have lost them because the game wasn’t the next Halo, which I can tell by your comment, is someone like you. Activision knows that giving Sony exclusive content might piss a few fanboys off, but at the end of the day, they won’t jump ship because of that, so giving Sony exclusive content was a safe bet, it gives Sony fans a great reason to jump on board.
Bungie’s job is to make the game. All they have done since day 1 is try to satisfy the community, and community which will NEVER be satisfied, because they are ungrateful bastards. Honestly, the Xbox community doesn’t deserve a damn thing, all they have done since last year is complain about EVERYTHING.
if it was entirely up to Bungie, there would be no exclusivity. If you don’t believe that, then you have zero understanding of what a game developer does, and should probably step down.
Nice assumptions to make.
To address a couple of assumptions you make –
“They lost ZERO Xbox fans” – They lost me, and quite a few of my friends. Why would I want to buy a season pass with 2/3 of the content? It’s not like the Ubisoft AC exclusive PS missions (just to use an example) – they’re relatively short. Destiny requires you to play the same missions over and over again.
“Honestly, the Xbox community doesn’t deserve a damn thing, all they have done since last year is complain about EVERYTHING” – Really? I don’t complain much. Most xbox fans seem pretty happy generally. I dont recall the Xbox Bloodborne exclusivity outrage for example. But i do recall a lot of noise about TR exclusivity. It goes both ways. What an asshat thing to say.
Do you blame the devil? Or the fool who made a deal with him? Or both?
Sure – it’s a business. But that doesn’t mean you have to agree with every stupid decision made in the name of business. In this case I don’t. And while you may not either ( I won’t assume you do) you don’t have to defend stupid business decisions. It’s your choice entirely. Was the success of COD based on 12 month content exclusivity deals? Or the game having a reasonably long single player campaign and MP with longevity? Industry success is not entirely marketing based, but sure it can help.
Oh I agree, Bungie has lost their mind in so many ways.
But I have to say MS did force Bungie to leave. And I didn’t see these legions of loyal fans rise up to fight for Bungie during their time with MS either.
I applaud their decision to walk away from MS (But sure as hell can’t understand why they allowed the same crap to happen with Activision. My only guess is they prob retain rights for Destiny in the long run)
Best way to die in Destiny
It’s nothing to do with Bungie, this is Activisions doing.
Don’t even have to crouch in the water first 🙂
Awwwww, I see what you did there! 😉
Bungie or their Activision overlords?
I don’t see this as a Game Developer thing more like a company exec [s]brilliant[s] idea.
Energy drinks, XP buffs and video games.
Yeh, I don’t know what they were thinking…
wow. Bungie must think they didn’t get enough hate & negative press over the $70 DLC pack.
this’ll fix that.
Activision were the ones responsible for this promotion, not Bungie.
That is a very valid point.
I think I’m putting Activision in my list of “Publishers to never buy from unless exceptional circumstances.”
Seeing as Ubisoft was the first and EA likes to teeter on the edge of an invite, I might be playing a lot of indi games in the future.
Activision has a history of similar deals.
To be sure. But I try to give the benefit of the doubt you know? Treat each game and dev and situation on its own merits.
Also that’s cod, you pretty much expect that.
But getting tired of it all.
Surprisingly enough I see EA and Ubisoft actually making an effort to make up for their mistakes with consumers, which is fantastic to see from two giant corporate machines. Activision though, seems to have never had a fuck to begin with.
Yeah Ubisoft I have no faith in but EA do try and I give them the benefit of the doubt.
Well, Ubi haven’t redeemed themselves yet, but considering they opened their E3 conference basically admitting that they’ve had a terrible year with consumers and are making every effort to listen from this point on, there might be some hope.
Does Grow Home count as “exceptional circumstances” for Ubisoft?
Have not heard about that before, looks interesting.
I really don’t like Uplay tho.
It’s on Steam. http://store.steampowered.com/app/323320/
So was Trials Fusion. Still had to run it through Uplay, with Uplay’s friends list not steams.
I actually have the game and it doesn’t use uPlay at all – purely steam.
Fairly certain Far Cry 3 did that too…
What about Valiant Hearts and Child of Light?
Child o light does not float my boat and I got hearts through ps+
I got nothin’ polite (or even civil, in fact) to say to or about these people.
The corporate reach-around you know and love, now with only one calorie!
Ah crap, I have a better one!
“DLC timed exclusivity; The choice of the next generation!”
I may have made the incorrect decision to start playing Destiny again.
I too have made that incorrect decision. I feel dirty.
But Destiny, despite it’s limited content is still a fantastic game, I love existing in it’s Space.
It’s like going over to your friends house as a kid, and finding his creepy uncle there.
The only thing different between this and every single other pre-order exclusive deal that we see is that it’s tied to a product. It’s definitely no worse than Amiibos, where content is locked off behind limited release products.
So yeah, this practice sucks. Fragmenting content is bad for the consumers. Can we go back to being upset about pants?
I will never stop being upset about pants.
And because you insist on making the new hire work in-office, they too will be upset about pants.
I work 2 days a week from home, no pants work is a pretty sweet perk.
🙁
Can’t we be upset about both? I think you will find that the Internet’s capacity for rage is near-infinite. 🙂
Nope. Like governments, the internet is only allowed to focus on one problem at a time. A large collection of people couldn’t possible manage something as complicated as multitasking.
Good point. In that case, why aren’t we still mad about… oh god.
I just did a mental inventory of something appropriately well-aged but unresolved/forgotten issues of the past and think I have to shut down now and maybe go eat some ice cream to reboot.
Why not a delicious can of refreshing Red Bull (TM)?
HAIL CORPORATE!Internet rage must also burn.at it’s hottest at all times. Needs new fuel regularly.
Ice cream is gonna save the day…
again
I think what makes it so annoying in this case is that the #1 complaint about the game is lack of content. And now they are gating more of what little there is.
It’s directly antagonistic to the player base and the problems the game has.
But what kind of salty snack pairs well with Red Bull? They’d better tell us, or else we’ll never know.
The highest bidder/preferred partner, of course! 😀
Although it would be nice to know exactly which product that is. We should probably like the Red Bull facebook page and follow them on Twitter to find out. And fill in a short marketing survey without reading the T&Cs that sign away our data to preferred partners. That way they’ll be sure to let us know!
Dude… “highest bidder” is not the preferred nomenclature. “category leader”, please.
Well seeing as your pretty much consuming sugar in a can, you may as well go to your pantry and grab the salt shaker and poor it into your mouth.
My money’s on Doritos 😛
That’s Mountain Dew’s BFF!
Good to see they’re encouraging anxiety and heart problems by promoting unhealthy drinks. Ah well, on the weekend I’ll be trading it in to go towards my Fallout 4 pre-order.
Activision were the ones responsible for this promotion, not Bungie.
Also, congratulations on further perpetuating the poison that is traded in games, a practice which is doing real damage to the game developers which bring us these games.
Not my problem if Activision want to go down the corporate sponsorship avenue. It’s Bungie’s problem they went with Activision to publish their game and now have demands and expectations on how to deliver their game to the paying consumer.
And cheers for being high and mighty. You continue doing that while I trade in what I want
Hi Kotaku AU team, can we get some clarification/confirmation from Red Bull/Activation if this is going to be a world wide promo or just US?
From what I’ve seen on Reddit it looks like it’s US only via 7-11 chains.
We have 7-11 here as well…
Doesn’t mean you’ll get participating stock, or blocked because your PSN/Live account isnt US based etc.
Does that mean it becomes available to everybody after December 31? Or it disappears after December 31?
Available to everyone with no need for codes effective 1/1/16
I was wondering that as well, not that I care too much. I stopped playing after the first month or so out of boredom, and only stayed so long because of competitive multiplayer.
I doubt it will be region locked. Bungie codes were thrown around the internet for the year before Destiny released, all of them worked for everyone.
You can probably try to import some ahaha.
Yep what Jacrench said. In the US Red Bull have distribution rights over their own product. In Australia it’s handled by a third party. Kollaras, to by knowledge.
Meaning what? They’re located in different countries.
Yeah US only . Just have to ebay some of those $40 cans from the US LOL
*dusts hands*
I’m out.
this is a timed exclusive. Available to everyone from jan 1.
I’m actually surprised that this sort of thing isn’t more rampant.
Corporate sponsorship is going to be vital in funding AAA. Budgets go up, returns go down. Why not have a Coke machine in the lobby of that hotel? Why not have a Fox newscast conveying plot? Why not heal with Mars Bars?
We’ve already got Mercedes in Mario Kart. Destiny partnering with Red Bull doesn’t seem that far-fetched to me.
Sure, and if it was a speeder bike with red bull livery that would be fine and thematic.
Gating a mission, not so much.
But dose it give my character wings?
Gives you chance for Ruin Wings
Ruin Wings – the name of this armour piece now becomes clear…
It’s a timed exclusive that’ll be available to EVERYONE from January 1st. ACCURATE information can be found here on Planet Destiny-
http://planetdestiny.com/red-bull-destiny-content-update/
Has anyone seen Requiem for a Dream?
SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN’T!
Jennifer Connolly’s story where she starts out doing something for fun and ends up being horribly abused to feed her addictions?
Bungie started off acting like Destiny was a bit of fun, then players noticed they weren’t getting what they should out of Destiny but kept doing it anyway…
One year later and yesterday we saw the “you’ll give what I want you to give to get the things I’ve got!” treatment for Destiny fans.
Today…. this is the “ass-to-ass” scene at the bachelor party.
The final scene is just a ruined Destiny player, lying on a bare mattress hugging a six-pack of red bull.
HAHAHA! For sure.
Please drink verification can to continue.
*takes Destiny disc out of case*
Cool. Now I have a Destiny themed coaster to put my Destiny themed Red Bull on.
Who cares, you already paid for both the Red Bull and Destiny. Thanks for supporting.
Gaming in 2015.
I see where that $500M went.
Well to be fair that $500m went straight down the drain and the bills are still piling up. Imagine you published a game that after years of work and millions of dollars was revealed to be like 25% of a full featured game. It’s easy for me to judge their DLC prices/brand deals and it’s quite fair since I’m the one being asked to pay those prices, but I’ve got to admit in their position I’d be wandering around Bungie HQ tattooing brand deals on their employees foreheads to recover my investment.
It’s easy to forget that even though Destiny is great and popular there’s a mountain of cash tied up in it.
It’s a can of Red Bull. It costs about 3 bucks. Even if you only want the DLC, not the drink, it’s about the same price as buying a map pack.
People really need to learn the purpose of game publishers……
This deal with Red Bull was made possible by Activision, they have a strong history of doing this kind of brand promotion.
Bungie are responsible for building the game, that’s all. So stop treating them like the devil, all they have done since day 1 is try to address community concerns and satisfy them. A community which is ungrateful and will never be happy with anything Bungie does for them.
Dude, read it. It said US ONLY! What a disappointment!
they shoulda held out for that fuck you doritos money
Do we get a new ability … Like heart palpatations?
Solution: make friend over xb in america/canada. Get them to give you code.
Possible issue: Code won’t work in Australia.
As long as they’re fair, honest and tasteful about it I actually like this method. That means the sponsor pays the development costs for the DLC, they make it available to all users in all regions, and they don’t include anything disruptive in the way of product placements. Although admittedly that last one is hard. Some people see a generic cola drink in a game and it ruins the atmosphere, where others can have a giant billboard right in front of them and actually feel like the world is more realistic as a result.
I’d much rather Doritos spend their advertising money on adding map packs to games instead of putting up obnoxious ads everyone ignores anyway. The only way it goes bad is if they’re taking stuff that was meant to be free or part of something else and repackaging it. Obviously that’s never going to be acceptable.
Pretty disgusting that this is where the industry has ended up. I put over 1000 hours into Destiny, but I stopped playing about 4-6 weeks ago because I felt that while HOW added some long overdue features and fixes, there was not enough overall content to keep me interested (a half assed horde mode is not what I call enjoyable).
I can’t see myself going back, considering all that is coming out over the summer period (Gears UE, Rainbow 6, Battlefront, etc) and this news actually makes me want to trade in my game out of pure protest.
Destiny can be a very enjoyable game and I hope everyone playing it loves that new DLC, but please for the love of god can everyone please boycott this attack against the consumer.
It’s all fun and games badmouthing bungie and Destiny but how many annoying kids who don’t know which way is up do you run into? For me it’s hardly at all 2 actually out of almost a year of playing with countless randoms from lfg sites. So thank you bungie for creating a game that kids can’t be f-d doing thus making it fun for us keep those COD grommets as far away as possible.