‘Destiny’ Updates & Gameplay: Bungie to Add Microtransactions to First-Person Shooter Game Next Week

Development studio Bungie recently announced that its "Destiny" game will soon have in-game transactions.

However, the company assured gamers that these microtransactions are not necessary to affect or improve their gameplay experience in any way, Polygon reported.

As explained in a new blog post in Bungie.net, the microtransactions will officially debut on October 13 along with the return of the non-playable character Tess Everis. The character will to her original role as a vendor in the Tower and will sport a new appearance, storefront as well as fresh purchasable items.

According to Bungie, the game's microstransactions will only apply to emotes, which are cosmetic actions that players can do with their actions. To purchase new emotes, gamers have to use the new in-game currency Silver. These can be acquired or purchased using real money through the Xbox Games Store or the PlayStation Store.

Of course, Bungie is not forcing gamers to spend real cash in exchange for a few virtual moves that will not boost their character's skills or improve their gameplay.

"If you're not interested in what Tess has to offer, you won't ever be forced to pluck an item off of her shelf," Bungie posted. "You'll still receive updates to the game, and you won't lose a Crucible encounter or fail to clear a Raid because you didn't have the right Eververse Trading Company emote equipped."

To ease a transition to a game with microtransactions, Bungie will be giving away free Silver to gamers to try out the new feature. They can then use these to try out the new emotes without spending their money.

According to Polygon, these emotes became the center of controversy in June of this year due to an interview Eurogamer had with Luke Smith, the creative director of the "Destiny" expansion, "The Taken King."

Back then, Bungie planned to unveil the expansion pack at $40. But aside from this, those who want to get additional emotes for their characters had to spend another $80 for the Collector's Edition, which comes with a copy of the original game and the two expansion packs.

Obviously, this move was immediately criticized since basically forcing gamers to purchase the game again and its expansion packs just for three emotes.

Fortunately, Bungie and Smith realized how the interview went and was able to view the problem through the perspective of gamers. The studio then decided to just sell the additional content separately and at a much cheaper price.