Gab Hernandez 
The Destiny 2 Starter Pack has been pulled from stores following a resoundingly negative response from players and fans are once again wondering if the game is dying.
Destiny 2 has launched Season of the Wish and alongside that release was a “Starter Pack.” While the season was already a contentious one that is set to run for an unusually long time, the controversial contents of the new bundle frustrated fans further. Unfortunately, this was nothing new for the game.
Destiny 2 has been facing much criticism over recent months. In a State of the Game earlier this year, many fans were disappointed at the lack of PvP content, additional microtransactions, and an admitted lack of operational capacity to provide more support for the game. All of this has fans asking.
What happened to the Destiny 2 Starter Pack?
The Destiny 2 Starter Pack has been pulled from storefronts by the developers following fan backlash.
A short while after it was released, the Destiny 2 team announced that the bundle was being removed from the game. Here’s what it included:
- 125,000 Glimmer
- 50 Enhancement Cores
- 5 Enhancement Prisms
- 1 Ascendant Shard
- Exotic Ship
- Exotic Sparrow
- Exotic Ghost Shell
- Traveler’s Chosen
- Ruinous Effigy
- Sleeper Stimulant
Three of these items are old Exotic weapons from 2019 or before. The rest are purely cosmetic and are of subjective quality. The material rewards are also quite sparse, not nearly enough to help new players get started with Destiny 2. There’s not even enough resources to masterwork a single piece of armor.
This has led many players to call out Bungie for asking $15 for what boils down to free log-in rewards for any other game. For context, buying the season only comes out to 1,000 Silver, or $10 to $12, and offers far more rewards. After players made their displeasure known, the developers acknowledged these concerns and pulled the Destiny 2 Starter Pack from stores.
“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,” the team said on Twitter.
It is unclear if the Destiny 2 Starter Pack will be replaced with a new bundle of this nature or if it’s simply gone. Either way, this simply piles on to what is already set to be an ugly end to 2023 for the long-running game.
Is Destiny 2 dying?
Destiny 2 isn’t dying in terms of its popularity, but Bungie is openly struggling since being acquired by Sony in 2022.
Destiny 2 developer Bungie laid off a significant chunk of its workforce in October alongside a number of other studios under Sony’s umbrella. The company is also juggling Destiny 2’s seasonal expansions with the development of two other games, alongside new store offerings like the starter pack.
Destiny 2’s previous expansion, Lightfall, garnered a mixed reception due to its story and lighter offering compared to previous expansions. This raised expectations further for The Final Shape, but fans will have to wait for some time to play it. Bungie confirmed that The Final Shape expansion has been delayed until deep into 2024, which will see the new Season of the Wish run for a very long while. Bungie officially states that the expansion “needs more time to become exactly what it needs to be.”
The expansion is still in development though, and the game’s average player count on Steam is actually up year-over-year in 2023. That makes it difficult to say that Destiny 2 is dying, though the game certainly seems to be on shaky ground at this point.
