It’s Time For ‘Future 2’ To Beef Up Its Free-To-Play Choices

One of many first issues Bungie did after they separated themselves from Activision to go unbiased was begin crafting a plan to take Future 2 free-to-play, one thing that was apparently not allowed beneath their previous deal.

When Future 2 launched that new format, it was really fairly superior, and I do know lots of people the place that was their leaping off level for entering into the sport for the primary time. Free-to-play meant that the primary two years of content material have been certainly free. The vanilla Pink Battle marketing campaign, the Curse of Osiris and Warmind DLCs, the primary three seasons, Forge, Drifter and Opulence. It was a ton of content material.

Then, Past Gentle hit, and that every one went away. Actually nearly every thing that made up the F2P expertise was shoved into the content material vault, exterior of the bottom playlists and fundamental entry to planets as patrol areas. That left Bungie to scramble with a brand new participant onboarding system that was lowered to a really fundamental Shaw Han-driven questline, however since then? The F2P expertise has felt positively anemic, and would possibly as properly nearly not exist in any respect.

The issue is that what’s added to as F2P content material is simply so sporadic and random that it doesn’t actually comply with any form of coherent sample for gamers. The previous system was a full marketing campaign, structured DLCs and a style of what the seasonal mannequin was like. The brand new one is that this intro quest after which a bunch of random actions, a free dungeon right here and there, two free raids that have been pulled from Future 1. One thing known as “Dares of Eternity.” Nevertheless it’s not a coherent package deal.

I’ve beforehand made the case that Bungie ought to work to unvault the Pink Battle marketing campaign, you understand, the factor that gamers first paid $60 for, that later served as an acceptable intro to the sport. However that looks as if a pipe dream now, and I’m left making an attempt to consider options.

I do know that Bungie is planning to introduce a giant new “Guardian Rank” system with Lightfall that’s meant to take new gamers via sure milestones and train them points of the sport. However that’s only a development mannequin, that isn’t precise content material.

I at all times thought the concept with Future 2 going free-to-play can be that over time, that meant they’d begin phasing in previous expansions to be a part of the F2P mannequin. I used to be fairly shocked when as a substitute of creating the Forsaken DLC free after three years, Bungie content material vaulted the marketing campaign and continues promoting the remaining scraps as a “Forsaken Pack” to this present day. Now, in an period when it looks as if Shadowkeep ought to in all probability be free now with Past Gentle, Witch Queen and now Lightfall within the sport, it nearly definitely is not going to be.

Future 2 is method too overmonetized at this level, and maintaining the sport damaged up into all these paid expansions is exhausting. This can be a sport that sells all previous expansions, even the half-vaulted ones, regardless of being years previous. They’ve a full microtransaction store. They’ve paid seasonal content material 4 occasions a yr. They now have a dungeon go the place these actions are bought individually. It’s an excessive amount of.

My recommendation stays phasing out previous DLC and letting that develop into a part of the F2P expertise in time. Forsaken shouldn’t have been vaulted, and Shadowkeep must be free when Lightfall hits. Previous that, I absolutely imagine that F2P gamers also needs to have entry to Stasis by this level, as maintaining that locked right into a singular two year-old enlargement is fairly absurd.

Guardians Ranks could possibly be nice, however that’s not the primary downside with F2P now. It’s the content material, or lack thereof, and what has modified since F2P was first launched resulting from every thing that was taken away.

Observe me on Twitter, YouTube, Fb and Instagram. Subscribe to my free weekly content material round-up publication, God Rolls.

Choose up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller sequence and The Earthborn Trilogy.