‘Destiny 2’ Will Retain Year-Long PS4 Exclusivity For Some Content
The hype generated by the Destiny 2 teaser trailer released Tuesday was tempered with disappointing news for Xbox One, and potentially, PlayStation 4 and PC owners. The year-long exclusivity arrangement between Activision and Sony for some Destiny content will continue into the sequel to be released this September.
The disappointing news comes at the end of the official PlayStation version of the Destiny 2 – Last Call Teaser Trailer posted to YouTube. A graphic states, “Get exclusive Destiny 2 content on PS4 with fine print that reads, “Timed exclusive content until at least Fall 2018. More details to come this summer.”
This timed-exclusivity arrangement started with the release of the original Destiny and locked a Strike, a multiplayer map, and some Exotic weapons to the PlayStation consoles at the time. New exclusive content was added to The Dark Below, House of Wolves, The Taken King, and Rise of Iron expansions. Due to the nature of Bungie changing the release date of Destiny 2, the PlayStation timed-exclusive content from The Taken King ended up being extended out to two years.
Timed exclusive content is nothing particularly new in the console industry, but it typically lasts weeks at best and one to three months at worst. The year-long exclusivity arrangement is much more egregious in the eyes of Xbox One owners and, what’s worse, it ends up affecting PlayStation 4 gamers as well.
The problem with the Destiny exclusive content is that Bungie is forced to keep them out of the normal weekly rotation. The timed-exclusive Strikes, for example, never show up as a Nightfall Strike for PS4 owners and any exclusive Exotic weapons never make it into Xur’s inventory for sale.
This creates an unfortunate situation where Sony’s and Activision’s contract hampers PlayStation owners’ ability to enjoy the game fully supposedly at the expense of the competition.
The question is if this situation where exclusivity holds back content on the PS4 continues with Destiny 2. Neither Activision nor Bungie have said anything yet as there is obviously more details coming this summer.
Naturally, Xbox fans were not happy with the news.
“It’s great when companies come right out and say ‘screw you’ to Xbox gamers, it makes it really easy to avoid buying their products,” Errattik said in the Xbox One sub-Reddit.
“I am OK with content being exclusive for a reasonable amount of time, say a month, but on year? Nahhhh,” bomberman447 added. “Especially when you are paying the same price for the content you likely won’t stick around to try.”
“All players are getting screwed by this deal but hey Activision gets paid and Sony gets to flaunt exclusive content so mission accomplished right?” Herp Derpington chimed in via NeoGAF.
It’s potentially not just Xbox One owners who will feel the full brunt of the PS4 timed-exclusivity arrangement for Destiny 2. If the rumors of a PC release for the sequel come to fruition, that will be another group of gamers who will also be left wondering why they paid the same amount of money for less content.
Destiny 2 will get a full reveal trailer on Thursday, March 30 at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT. The release date for the game, according to leaked posters, is September 8, 2017. The month lines up with previous releases of the main game and the two major expansions in the franchise. The day, however, lands on Friday. The typical release date for new games is Tuesday in North America and Thursday in Europe. However, Activision has released the last two Call of Duty titles – Black Ops 3 and Infinite Warfare – on a Friday. A start of the weekend release for Destiny is certainly not out of the question given the size and dedication of the fanbase.
[Featured Image by Bungie/Activision]
