Bungie has received loads of heat over the Eververse-microtransaction-focused-design of Destiny 2 and that heat has only been turned up higher since the start of The Dawning holiday event this past week. Game Director Christopher Barrett took to Twitter on Friday evening to assure PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC gamers that the studio is looking at Eververse along with other hot-button issues like character inventory and vault space.
Destiny 2 players immediately noticed the Eververse focus of The Dawning event even before it launched. Specifically, almost all of the event items that can be obtained are locked behind the Eververse storefront. The most desirable items, like Dawning armor, ships, sparrows, and emotes, cannot be obtained except through a Dawning Engram that can only be obtained through a weekly milestone or purchasing a Dawning Engram with real-world money.
There are some items from The Dawning that can be earned through Daily Milestone Gift, but these are not the highly desirable ones like armor. Additionally, there are not enough ways to earn a Dawning Engram from Eververse through gameplay to even receive a full set of armor for a character.
Bungie does allow players to purchase certain items in exchange for Silver Dust, the other in-game currency earned from dismantling Eververse objects. Unfortunately, the cost of Dawning pieces like armor makes it likely that only the luckiest and dedicated Destiny 2 players will even be able to earn enough Silver Dust to purchase missing pieces without spending real money to purchase Dawning Engrams.
Throw in the current inventory nightmare where Shaders received from Eververse are placed in different stacks from the same Shader earned from the Daily Milestone Gift. Additionally, Daily Milestone Gift items do not give Silver Dust when dismantling.
This has stirred yet another uproar in the Destiny 2 community with players in the Reddit and official Bungie forums, as well as many YouTube personalities complaining about The Dawning items being locked behind Eververse instead of earnable through gameplay, as in the original Destiny version of the event.
Barrett dropped a pre-Christmas note via Twitter explaining Bungie is hearing the feedback on Eververse from Destiny 2 players.
“We both want our players to feel respected, and to deliver great content regularly to our community. Expect lots of discussion with the dev team and an update on our path forward after the new year,” he said.
The Destiny 2 Game Director also revealed the studio has short and long-term solutions planned for the current inventory and vault space issues that have only gotten worse as more items have been added to the game. Additionally, Bungie plans to refactor Raid items to make it so the most difficult activities will be the most rewarding.
Eververse aside, The Dawning is a solid Destiny 2 event with fun and welcome updates like Mayhem Crucible and snowballs in Strikes. It is a shame to see Bungie stub their toe once again with Eververse.