Bungie came under fire last week when it was discovered that the Curse of Osiris expansion for Destiny 2 locked players who didn’t buy it out of the Prestige difficulty Leviathan Raid and Nightfall, content that was originally available to all players of the game. It also impacted a trophy for completing one of these activities on the Prestige difficulty, which locked players who hadn’t obtained it out of the Platinum trophy. The same thing happened with the endgame activity, Trials of the Nine, which had a trophy attached to it as well.
The team quickly communicated that they were looking into the issue, and today issued a quick statement regarding some changes that will be made to who is able to access Prestige content going forward. They explained that their reasoning for increasing the difficulty (and subsequently locking out players who can’t level up further) was that they saw content in Destiny 1 get left behind and outgrow relevance as new expansions came out. Bungie cited the following as their original goals for separating the Normal and Prestige mode levels of the content:
- The Normal Leviathan Raid and Normal Nightfall would always stay at a Power level that was accessible to all players.
- Prestige difficulty would always rise to the new Power cap. It could be the pinnacle of challenge, with the most prestigious rewards, but it therefore would require you to own the latest Expansion and be at the new Power cap.
- Additionally, the game provides Seasonal, time-limited PvP playlists – Trials of The Nine and Iron Banner. These activities and their rewards are meant to evolve each Season, and they utilize new maps, so they would require you to own the latest content. To play the latest season of Iron Banner or Trials, and earn the new rewards, players would need to own Curse of Osiris.
Admitting that they had made a mistake in how they distributed this content, Bungie has worked up a new plan for what activities will be accessible to which players.
- The Prestige Leviathan Raid will be brought back down to Power 300, and its rewards will drop down to match the new Power Level. All players will regain access to the Prestige Raid.
-This will allow access to “The Prestige” Achievement/Trophy for all players.
-This will also allow all players ability to complete the final step for the Legend of Acrius Exotic Shotgun.- Trials of The Nine will only require Curse of Osiris when it features a Curse of Osiris map. For all other weeks, it will be available to all players.
-This will allow access to “Lest Ye Be Judged” Achievement/Trophy for all players.
-Trials of The Nine rewards that launched with Destiny 2 will still be accessible to all players.
-New Seasonal Rewards that launched with Curse of Osiris, such as the new Seasonal Armor Ornaments, will require ownership of Curse of Osiris to acquire.- The Prestige Nightfall will remain a pinnacle activity, at the new 330 Power cap.
-This means Prestige Nightfall will require ownership of Curse of Osiris.
-Because of this, we will update “The Prestige” Achievement/Trophy to only reference The Prestige Raid.
-Moving forward, we are investigating adding a 3rd difficulty to all Prestige activities, so that we can provide both a challenge that stays relevant with each new Expansion, and a Prestige version that is available to all players.- Normal Nightfall will only require Curse of Osiris when it features a Curse of Osiris map. For all other weeks it will be available to all players.
- Time limited events – Iron Banner, Faction Rally, and The Dawning, will be made available to all players.
-We will be postponing tomorrow’s Faction Rally, to ensure all of our players can access the activity and the appropriate rewards.
-Iron Banner and Faction Rally rewards that launched with Destiny 2 will still be accessible to all players.
-New Seasonal Rewards that launch with Curse of Osiris, such as the new Seasonal Armor Ornaments, will require ownership of Curse of Osiris to acquire.
These changes are expected to go live today as Destiny 2 update 1.1.1 is added to the game. In addition to the above changes, the post hinted that they are working on improving the Heroic Strike playlist by adding modifiers, new challenges, and making the available to all players.
This quick communication and fix from Bungie really helps to prove their point that they are committed to a better dialog with players. As a player myself–at times a quite frustrated one–I’m really liking this new, more talkative Bungie. They are much more quick to acknowledge and address fan feedback, and hopefully they can keep pace moving forward. What do you think of Destiny 2 Prestige content being made available again to all players?
[Source: Bungie]
