Destiny's first expansion The Dark Below takes aim at story criticism

Harold Ryan, the company's president, is well aware of the criticism Destiny suffered at the hands of some reviewers and many players. Most of that early criticism, from what I could tell, revolved around the story, its structure and its delivery. Nearly two months after its 9th September 2014 release, and for me three days and 22 hours of play later, other aspects of Destiny have more than made up for the threadbare plot. But for Bungie, Destiny's first expansion The Dark Below provides the perfect opportunity to address criticism.
Interestingly, Ryan has recently revealed Bungie’s logic behind shipping Destiny with planned, future DLC content already on the game’s disc – their reasoning may surprise you - it's to limit download sizes because of people's bad internet connection speed.

[Mikelarry]

Yeahh............. what a load of porkies. lol i bet capcom was wishing they used that line when they cared about we poor peasant internet speeds

[DesertFoxJr]

Haha, I'm wondering whether it's true or not, or if it's some altruistic spin on damage control.

[Naga]

If they are so concerned about people's internet connection, perhaps they shouldn't have made that a requirement for playing the game.

[JeffGUNZ]

@ Naga

That was my exact thought when I was reading this lol

[user5669510]

Naga bubz you just blew my mind I completely forgot the us an online only game voiding everything the said. Lol. Too funny. I love how devs try to get over on gamers. Over priced dlc that's on the disc lmao. Stay classy game devs.

So we have EA , Activision, Ubisoft, capcom blatantly lying and trying to get over on gamers, but gamers still act like like its only one. News flash these publishers don't care about you they want your money. Who's going to be the next publisher to slip up ? are we going to sign a petition about Activision since they're over charging for dlc that is already on the disc? I doubt it since ts not about a gfx difference between console versionsi

[creatchee]

This might be the single most egregious PR explanation ever. They must think that our brains are dead.

[Mikelarry]

No I think the Tomb raider sequel explanation takes that title for the most egregious explanation ever, now that was A DOOZY this one comes 2nd place tho

[SINISTERGENESIS]

Agreed but people like Jeff Gunz above is one of the hypocrites that cried about me stating Facts about his precious game now look he thinks this is garbage now LMFAO!!!!

[BlackWolf12]

After seeing the kinds of things people write on the internet about Destiny, yes, most Gamers brains died long ago.

Bunch of morons to be honest, the gaming community is a lost cause.

[joab777]

This is what happened. They ripped part of the game out and made it dlc for 2 reasons. They were behind and needed dlc for December. Mmo's die without continuous content being added.

I actually have no problem to hold some content for 3 months. But make it free. Then charge for the 2nd piece...which was obviously the planned 1st dlc.

And whoever developed this explanation should be fired. It's a 10 yr plan and u just told us u have no solution to getting content to us past the on disc content b/c of Internet connections.

If they came out and said. U know what, we fell behind and wanted to get the game out. We wanted content for u for Xmas time so we pulled some but it's gonna be free....we would RESPECT you for it!!!!!

[SINISTERGENESIS]

Well said

[paul-p1988]

Exactly!! Well Said!

And we all know that if a gamer RESPECTS you and your work they are more likely to support the franchise and buy the DLC. But now Bungie/Activision are treating us like idiots and slapping a £20 price tag on it... no thanks!

[johndoe11211]

Bungie is really starting to sound pathetic now. All the moronic excuses they keep making to cover up their incompetence. "Atheon teleporting the furthest 3 players was a glitch so we had t fix it" translation "We really thought that people wouldn't beat the VOG that easily so we had to make it more difficult and less sensible by having him teleport 3 random players hoping people won't get bored and realize they only have 1 raid thus far".

Apart from Treyarch with the black ops franchise, I have never seen a dev completely ignore and piss off their fanbase in such a "up yours" manner like what bungie is doing with destiny. They must seriously think we are idiots.

[VealParmHero]

I am far from purchasing this DLC. I am at a point where the only way to rank up more is play the same raid over and over. Now, they announce a relatively high-priced, lacking DLC package, already on the disk, with one less strike for xbox players. The strikes would be the only thing I am really interested in. I don't know how they expect people to pay the same price for 1 stirke, a raid, and a few maps/missions.

[turdburgler1080]

What about the following content after these expansions bungie? Guess some folks are up s!#t creek without a paddle. This is a really piss poor explanation.

[Jonny5isalive]

well it also means that it was already finished and cut out of the game to sell later. I dont have this game but I hear it is lacking in content. Gotta cut parts out and sell it for more money instead of actually releasing as much content as possible and making something after the game is released.

shit, with all the dlc already on the disk I guess they finished the part taht people paid 60$ for a year ago.

[jahfen83]

"Harold Ryan: There’s a bunch of shared-world content we’ve shipped on the disc specifically to limit download sizes for people. Both inside the US and all over the world, how much you download on your local home internet connection can be a problem, and even how much storage space it takes up on your console."

I agree with this.

[shivvy24]

On disk dlc by bungie, never did I see this coming! They just pulled a Capcom

[-Foxtrot]

LOL

Oh Bungie....how the mighty has fallen.

I bloody knew Activision were a bad sign when they were announced as the games publisher. But no no...people said it's Bungie and they'd have full control.

[DesertFoxJr]

"Don't worry, they said. It'll be fine, they said..."

Bur really, it is a bit sad to see Bungie fall from glory. Still a good game, but I don't think it's what many people wanted or expected it to be.

[lipton101]

Dude, the company made the game for one reason, to make money. Not to kiss the ass of the entitled gamer N4G club. How will the product continue to make money? Through DLC expansions. The game has a "10 year life cycle," which is an excuse to use the same engine for 10 years with minimal changes, kind of like their past products, Halo 3, ODST and Reach, to maximize their return on investment initially by creating the new engine. I guarantee there will be 1 full $60 retail release every 12 to 24 months which will essentially be a glorified expansion where you use your same character. I play the game and enjoy it but it's getting old already. In 5 years we'll all be bitching about how drstiny is the same game with minimal changes year after year, like with call of duty. But from the perspective of a person formally educated in the ways of business (M.B.A) I commend them on this annual license to print money.

[ManAnimalX]

@lipton101

You most definately represent that "New
Breed" of gamer he was talking about.

smh.

[georgenancy]

loool these developers must think we're stupid

[Reportillo4]

how considerate of them

[Hellsvacancy]

Very considerate of them for not wanting me to use my 60mbs connection

[JeffGUNZ]

"hey, we don't want people to use the data limits on DLC so we put it on the disc. We are concerned about people internet speed/caps on a ONLINE ALWAYS game"

[RosweeSon]

Nice to see them giving something back to the community, £19.99 for DLC!? Madness, never heard of free post launch DLC. If burnout could do it and do it so well surely destiny could have released a pack for free, Red dead did plenty and probably sold half as many copies as destiny has. Nevermind.

[lnfiniteLoop]

if you've got time to create DLC before release then your:

a) not putting all your efforts into the game your creating

and

b) your screwing your customers out of content you could have included with the game in the first place...

also chucking DLC on disk is also saving you money for servers to store the DLC on and saving you bandwidth costs of people downloading the DLC...

Nobody has pride in what they do these days, Nobody wants to give people value, its all about screwing money out of people as quickly as you can for as little effort that they can...

[DesertFoxJr]

That;s what I'm saying. I know it's not economically intelligent or even remotely possible these days, but I would love it if a developer didn't ship a game until they've done 100% that they could ever do with it. Like that's it. It's objectively a great game, nothing more could be added to it. Here you go. Enjoy.

[GamingSinceThe80s]

Nintendo is still giving you more than your moneys worth,just look at all they packed into Smash Bros U it will keep most people busy for years to come.And the Mario Kart DLC has 8 new drivers and 16 tracks for $13 thats half the tracks of the $60 release.Thats how DLC should be done.They just may be the ones to save this industry from another melt down if other publishers would follow their example of fair DLC and shipping complete games.

[BlackWolf12]

You obviously know nothing about game design.

[ManAnimalX]

@lnfiniteLoop

My my my, my good man I 10000% Agree.

Couldn't have said it better.

Bubble vote for you kind sir.

[aviator189]

Wow. Can't believe he actually just said that...

[XtraTrstrL]

THey pulled a Namco/Crapcom with this one.

[Rich1631]

Riiiiggghhhttt...

You got caught. Shut the hell up, Bungie.

[Exies7]

I got nothing, man. This is just starting to get ridiculous. He needs to quit talking.

[OUROSMAG]

For all the complaints and griping people sure are playing a hell of a lot of destiny to be so disheartened with it.

[CrowbaitBob]

Soccer is the most popular sport on the planet and all it requires is an object to kick around. Simply keeping people entertained isn't a huge achievement.

[Heisenburger]

Thanks Bungie, that was very considerate of you.

http://media-cache-ak0.pini...

[Sir_Simba]

Isn't the game online only, so why are they pretending like they catered for off-line players.
this is some bullshit, I did not buy tho, I learned a hard lesson from BF4 (never get tooo excited, don't pre-order, give it a couple of months prices will drop very early, most big games don't even function well after release for while.)

[Mikelarry]

You make a very good point that blows their BS explanation. this game IS only online so if you do have shoddy internet you are still going to suffer either way.

[GearSkiN]

how do you go fromfrom halo to this?

[Fkhalf16]

so DLC on disc is true. WOW!!! and it came from bungie themselves. ohhh snap shots fired!!!

[Tex117]

Bungie and Activision really screwed the pooch on this thing.

Its painful to see such great gameplay and art design get crushed with poor management decisions and dumbed down systems.

[mochachino]

Coming from a company that made an online only game.

[Fizzgig]

Hang on a sec, they're charging more money to unlock content that's already on the disc we bought to begin with? Surely there's got to be a legal grey area surrounding that.

[JeffGUNZ]

Pretty much the entire gaming communities response to that quote:

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[TheLastColossus]

I hope the DLC has an actual story.

[spektical]

oh, the irony in that statement.

what a bunch of crap.

[quenomamen]

One word, Activi$ion

[TekKing]

Look at all of the Xbox fanboy comments. lol. I guess they still can't handle that a Bungie game that is mainly associated with Playstation now is doing so well. I mean look at everyone pretending to be shocked about DLC being on the disc. If you don't like it then feel free to play the content that you already paid money for offline. Oh wait, you can't and when you bought the game you knew damn well that you couldn't play it offline to begin with so it doesn't matter if incomplete DLC assets are on the disc or not.

[xX1NORM1Xx]

On disc DLC is bad for everyone no matter what console u like remember the capcom incident was that the xbox fans too? U are not bungies PR don't defend practices like this

*edit for autocorrect bs*

[HighlyDoubtful]

exactly. on-disc dlc is definitely bad for every gamer.

[MrSwankSinatra]

What a load of bullcrap.

[xX1NORM1Xx]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I can't believe a developer especially a well respected developer like bungee would even joke about saying that

[IQUITN4G]

I think most of are inclined not to believe this

[Mexxan]

It's a shame in a way that the 1st DLC isn't free to give the game a boost but it's a mixed bag - I got the DLC so if it went free now I'd be pissed.

[3ricb]

I will give them the benefit of the doubt. He said part of the DLC is on the disc, because it shares assets, to limit download size. I'm sure you still have to download a large chunk of the DLC i. If the download is only a few MB, then your right, which you all aren't.

From what I read, connecting parts of the new DLC are what people are finding because it shares assets etc. I dont see huge labyrinths and worlds these people are seeing.

I would liken that to maybe the driving portions on Mars where there is nothing to do but drive to get to the next section in the explore modes etc.

Why are people complaining? If you want them to start on the DLC after the game is made, then wait another year if you want your DLC. Does anyone understand development time or what it takes to do this?

[respekanize91]

Is the content short..sure..but im not gonna be a keyboard warrior and scream at the top of my lungs because im still enjoying the game with friends and trying to salvage all resources for when the expansion hits.

Nice to see someone else isnt going crazy over this, guess like me you have "real world" problems to deal with.

[chaosx]

Bungie : Hi activision so here's the game , hope you like it.
Activision: It looks fantastic , but to recoup our investment we need new DLC every 6 months.
Bungie: Well thats going to be impossible given the scale of the game , we were hoping to have Iron banner , and The queens wraith events that could generate ....
Activision : Okay we will make it easy , no DLC < No deal.
Bungie :well we could pull out the last 2 planets and maybe a few strikes
Activision : perfect ! and still charge full price for release ! Now we need to fuck Microsoft over , We need exclusive PS content !
Bungie : uummmm ... give PS users a years early access to a strike and come custom skins....
Activision: And still Charge Xbox player full price on DLC! Can you smell that ?
Bungie : No ?
Activision: Thats the smell of money and Fanboy rage !

[NeoGamer232]

OK. Let me get this right...

Destiny is an always online game...

Yet the DLC is on disc because of people's bad internet connection...

Ummmmm... So why is the game always online if so many people have bad internet connections?

I call BS...

[rivencleft]

I think what angers me most about companies doing this is that you've already paid for the game, I know technically it's being licensed to you, but I feel that by purchasing the disc the game is on I own that disc and the fact there is DLC on the disc that I can't access until I pay MORE money is just bogus. I own the game disc, I have right to sell it if I chose or snap it in half if it's that crappy of a game, but once again saying I have to pay more money for something I already own is just astounding to me. I was behind Destiny since it was announced, pre-ordered it from the start, played the Alpha, Beta, and after leveling up 2 characters to around 24 I just felt there was nothing more for me in the game so I sold it, definitely not regretting that action.

[mikeboccher]

Remember when they told us that it wasn't locked on disc and just place holders like we were stupid and couldn't see the truth? Yeah, now they say it is locked.

[Dirtnapstor]

Apparently many of you did not read what he said and simply went with the articles title... Completely misleading. Not that I don't disagree about the DLC price point, unless it is a substantial amount of content.

[MAULxx]

I'm not buying any Destiny DLC.

DLC should here be called Disc Locked Content.

Even if it wasn't on the disc I still wouldn't buy it.

[DJ]

You shouldn't be playing Destiny anyway. It's not that great, lol.

[KingKevo]

Yeah... That is bs. All that is missing are enemies, death barriers and voice over, probably all stuff that is only active when you do actually start the mission, which obviously cannot be done atm. Though in one area there is still a pre-Alpha Major around, though I guess that that will be disabled in the mission.

The problem we will always face is this: We do not know when something has been finished. So to say this is bad just because it was on the disc is wrong. It would have also been just as bad if it was finished but not present on the disc. I get why it upsets people more when it is already there and especially when there are ways to get into these areas, but the bad thing is that content is being held back.

In many cases even before the release content is already being developed that is intended for DLC, but the really bad thing about this game is that is seems to be really obvious that at some point the stuff had to be cut out just to use it as DLC, and I bet it was Activision who demanded that and I doubt Bungie is really upset that people accessed the areas. We should be mad at Activision if we want to blame anyone, not Bungie. They are more or less the scapegoat now, also when it comes to the pricing of the DLC.

[PyroMessiah86]

Damage control or what? Funny this headline is out now following the news need to install 20GB for Master Chief Collection.

They are trying to steal some thunder from 343 and failing.

Saying that I did enjoy getting my Warlock to Lv.27, the grind past that I can't be bothered with though. Not enough content make me want to get to Lv.30. I did get a super cheap version of Destiny with all DLC though so will play the DLC somewhere down the line. No rush though.

[DJ]

I've worked on game content before, and he may actually be telling the truth. It's important to establish terrain before doing set dressing, and they may just re-use some assets on the disc anyway for DLC.

If the DLC code is 20KB, then we got an issue. =P

[Noba]

Yet they make Destiny require internet to play....

[DevilishSix]

I think Destiny has great gameplay, graphics, art, music, and level design, but here are many of the problems I have with Destiny:

1. mission design is awful.

2. content is lacking and repetitive.

3. There are so many glitches and bugs in the raid.

4. Lack of social features to group up with others, indefenseible considering this is supposed to be a bigtime online only game.

5. Loot drop RNG is messed up beyound defense, especially raid gear.

6. Playing the same Strike map in matchmaking four times in a row, really stupid.

7. Story is pathetic and feels gutted, guess thats why Joseph Stanton left Bungie and went to 343 Studios after all these years.

8. So many problems that mess up the user experience...why can you only keep 20 items in each section of your vault, why can you only carry 5 bounties at a time.

I could go on and on, but you get the drift. I frequent the bungie forums and there has been a laundry list of things gamers have been asking fixed or added since day one, but Bungie only cares about hotfixing things they overlooked. They haven't made things more fun or better for the players, all they do is nerf guns and patch exploits.

I like this game but Bungie has taken a huge Reputation hit on this and if there is a Destiny 2, gamers aren't going to be fooled again and I seriously doubt Destiny lasts ten years as planned in it's current state it will be dead by next summer if not sooner.

Lastly, with all the design issues, lack of content, glitches, and nerfing......I think the Lead Designer on this game should be immediately fired, what say you Bungie?

[1nsomniac]

So after publicly assuring & promising there is absolutely no future DLC content on the disc there now happy to claim there is with the explanation it's because of possible slow internet connections. Surely that's illegal seeing how they so publicly explained there wasn't.

It seems the only reason they've now come clean is because someone has dug a little deeper & found that they have lied.