Bungie removes Destiny 2 ‘Starter Pack’ DLC after a day, following complaints it was overpriced

Bungie has removed new ‘Starter Pack’ DLC for Destiny 2, a day after it was introduced.

The Starter Pack cost players $15 and included three exotic weapons, three cosmetics and some materials, including 125,000 Glimmer, 50 Enhancement Cores, 5 Enhancement Prisms and an Ascendant Shard.

Following the pack’s release, players quickly took to Twitter and Reddit to complain about it for numerous reasons.

Some players argued that by giving new players exotic weapons and materials, the DLC was essentially a pay-to-win situation.

Meanwhile, others claimed that even if it was technically pay-to-win, there likely wouldn’t be much winning going on because the exotic weapons included weren’t particularly devastating and the materials can be earned fairly easily in-game.

The general consensus was that the DLC didn’t really constitute a ‘Starter Pack’ at all, because the items provided weren’t actually the best choices for players starting the game for the first time and that Season Passes cost less than $15 and provide far more useful content.

“Any new player who buys this is going to be told ‘yeah bud you just got ripped off’ by their veteran friends,” explained Twitter user @RickKackis. “Do you think they would want to keep playing after that?”

https://twitter.com/R_Cadey/status/1729748426747765136

After removing the Starter Pack, Bungie posted a message on its official Destiny 2 Team account on X (formerly Twitter), explaining that the DLC was not “bringing joy”, but not addressing the cost or usefulness of the items.

“Hey everyone, we launched Season of the Wish yesterday and have been monitoring the conversation around what you’ve been enjoying and what you haven’t,” its message read. “We’ll start things off with the Starter Pack, which is not something bringing joy.

“We’ve heard your concerns and agreed that there are other parts of Destiny 2 that new players should want to dive into first before chasing these Exotic weapons, cosmetics, and upgrade materials.”

Earlier this month Bungie told fans that it knew it had “lost a lot of [players’] trust”, as it addressed its community for the first time since news that it was laying off as many as 100 employees.

Last week it was reported that the game’s player count had fallen to a historic low since the PC version of Destiny 2 transferred to Steam in October 2019.