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[Update] Bungie Patches Destiny Sparrow Racing League Record Book Exploit
Update: Bungie has patched the huge exploit that allowed non-paying players to earn rewards from the Sparrow Racing League Record Book. The company has detailed how it handled the situation and a caveat for those who have legitimately earned rewards.
At this point, you can't use the preview screen in the Eververse Trading Company window to unlock rewards. However, those who did get the gear without paying won't have it deleted.
Instead, Bungie has made it so that you cannot equip any reward items without paying for the book. Your progress is saved, however. So if you decide to purchase the book, you'll have those items available.
If you are a paying customer, Bungie warns that right now you can only earn awards once and there is no mechanism for recovering deleted SRL gear. The studio is working on a way to allow players to reclaim that gear or re-earn it in the future.
[Source: Bungie]
Original Story:
Destiny’s Sparrow Racing League event kicked off yesterday, sending Guardians speeding across the solar system. The racing-focused events come with an optional set of rewards that require an investment of 1,000 silver (approximately $10).
Unfortunately, crafty players have figured out how to unlock the rewards without paying. As players race, they open up different achievements in the $10 Record Book.
The items can be earned simply by checking them off in the shop preview at the Eververse Trading Company. That means anyone who purchased the $10 book wasted their money.
Bungie is aware that this is happening and has vowed to fix it. You can check out video (filmed by YouTube user Giggle Monster) of the exploit in action above.
We’re investigating a bug with the SRL Record Book, with the intention of fixing it. Please stand by.
— Bungie Help (@BungieHelp) December 9, 2015
The reactions to the Reddit post are understandably intense. A number of the items only have value during the event, which means that the longer this goes unfixed during the three-week period, the more impact it has on players.
We’ve reached out to Bungie and Activision for comment. We’ll update should we receive a response.
[Source: Reddit, Bungie on Twitter]
Our Take
There are two questions in play here. The first is if Bungie will punish those that use the exploit. The other is how (not if, but how) Bungie will compensate those that paid for the book and had their purchase devalued by shoddy testing. Bungie’s microtransaction-driven event system isn’t universally adored, and this event doesn’t go in the win column with this exploit floating.
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