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Bungie's Luke Smith Apologizes For Destiny Collector's Edition Comments, Pricing Changes On The Way
Bungie is experiencing a bit of a PR snafu after Destiny: The Taken King's creative director Luke Smith made some sarcastic comments about its upcoming Collector's edition, but it is working to address the controversy.
You can find a full, detailed breakdown of exactly what was said and why Destiny fans are frustrated by heading here. The quick version, however, is that there is a Collector's Edition of the upcoming The Taken King expansion that includes exclusive in-game emotes and armor shaders, but also includes the base Destiny game as well as its previous expansions. For Destiny fans who want that content, they will have to purchase a lot of content they already own. Fans were confused by this, and in an interview with Eurogamer, Smith defended the pricing and content, but in a sarcastic way that was read by fans as being dismissive.
Today, however, Bungie and Smith posted a large update on its website apologizing for the comments writing, "Reading my interview with Eurogamer and imagining it came from some random developer of a game I love – that random developer looks like an Asshat. But that Asshat was me – and those words rightfully anger you. I'm sorry." The update also reveals that the content Destiny's most dedicated fans want – the in-game emotes and armor shaders – will be available for $20 without the the need to re-buy the original game and the DLC.
Access to that content depends on what aspects of Destiny you already own or have pre-purchased, so I suggest checking out the blog update to see when the access to the content will be available for you. Alongside the change in distribution, Bungie also has plans to reward players who have been on board with Destiny since day one in the form of permanently exclusive items.
Bungie says today's update is the first of two and will have more details tomorrow.
[Source: Bungie]
Our Take
I'm glad to see Bungie is trying to make things right with the fans most responsible for Destinys success, and I'm glad to see Luke Smith out in front taking responsibility for what he said. Bungie and Activision could have easily taken Smith out of the limelight while things settled down, but to see him on Bungie's blog calling himself an asshat is both humorous and affirming of his sincerity.
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