I would put this in the “fumble on the one yard line” territory for Bungie, who debuted a promising new Destiny 2 activity, Onslaught, and a slate of powerful reprised weapons for its free Into the Light content drop launching in two weeks.
But in a new article talking about all the (often crazily overpowered) perks, they casually dropped this:
“Half of these will be available starting April 9, including The Recluse, Hung Jury SR4, Succession, Edge Transit, Elsie’s Rifle and Falling Guillotine. The remainder will unlock one at a time each week through the week of May 21. The BRAVE Arsenal weapons will continue to drop from Onslaught after The Final Shape, but the limited-edition variants won’t be available after June 3, so go get them while you can!”
So, only half the weapons hit on April 9, and I’d say most of them are probably not in the “most anticipated” half minus Recluse and the suddenly OP Edge Transit. But then there will be one dropped a week up through May 21. Then, The Final Shape launches just two weeks later.
This is annoying for two reasons. First, just…why. Why do this. I know the answer. It’s engagement. They want people to have a reason to log in every week for some new weapon to chase as opposed to grinding them out for the start, but it doesn’t make it any less annoying. And I think it can have the opposite effect, as if you were hyped for a specific or weapon or two you might just…not show up at all until those weapons arrive. Everyone figured they’d be dropping on day one, as it was never implied otherwise.
The second problem is what Bungie is doing with its limited edition “shiny” variants, a unique look for weapons that will drop rarely and have four perk options. The “ideal” is getting one of these with multiple god roll perks attached. However with this timeline, instead of two months to grind for them, you will only have 2-3 weeks for the last two, as this entire “limited edition” thing is going away at The Final Shape. A true “you had to be there” thing now crunched into a smaller timeline due to the timegating decision.
I believe Bungie said there was a quest that would get you at least one special edition a week, but the entire concept of timegating this stuff seems pointless and once again, embodying annoying live service “engagement” demands.
In the long term, these weapons will be around indefinitely, but I don’t see the point in launching this like a deflated balloon with half the weapons people were excited about missing on day one. I’m wondering if the pushback will be so loud they actually revert it.
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