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How could Bungie get away so easily with removing paid content from Destiny 2?

makaveli60

Member
Back in the day I was a sort of a Destiny fan, it was among the first nextgen feeling games to me (despite being crossgen). I played it a lot, participated in events and even played PvP a lot which I never do. Then new games came, I left it behind.

I was curious what would Destiny 2 bring, a real (then) nextgen only sequel but was somewhat disappointed that it just looked as a big expansion to Destiny 1. I was contemplating to buy it anyway as I enjoyed the first game so much but other games got in the way, time went by and D2 became free to play. I was glad, thought it’s time for me to join, started doing the main story but eventually other games got in the way again.

Yesterday I felt the urge to play it now that it has a ps5 upgrade and thought I would continue the story where I left. Oh boy, how wrong I was. I was lost, didn’t know how to start it, so went to the internet and had to face the fact that Bungie removed a lot of content, including the main and dlc stories, entire planets etc. This means there is no way to play the story of Destiny 2 and new players just get flabbergasted with main characters that died, people they never heard of etc.

Now as I didn’t pay for this game, personally I don’t have too much right to complain but what about those people that paid a lot of money for the base game and dlcs? How is it acceptable that Bungie removes content that a lot of people paid serious money for? Where is the outrage for this? Cyberpunk has been under attack since release for having a couple of bugs but there is silence regarding this? I really can’t understand it.

As an important side note: this is what the glorious online only digital future means. You pay but have no rights at all. You just have to accept what your master does. Don’t forget this when you are cheering for this glorious digital future.
 
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Punished Miku

Gold Member
I think they're basically just an MMO at this point. MMO communities are incredibly insular. Most journalists can't even really report on them because they don't follow the game closely enough to cover it accurately. Most of the people left playing are addicted and will take whatever it put out.

The fact they went indie also gives them some sympathy points I guess, when it really shouldn't. It's a bizarre situation.
 

Golgo 13

The Man With The Golden Dong
I think Destiny 2 players probably have complained at certain times during this process? But it’s been years and years of small changes, not as if one day they removed 16 hours of content ONE DAY and said “deal with it”. Also, and I’m not being an asshole here, who the fuck plays Destiny 2 anymore?

It’s basically a dead game in the zeitgeist of hardcore gaming, I forgot it existed for like... 3 years maybe?
 

Codes 208

Member
The last big update was a reboot of sorts and worked with what they were doing with the story, it sucks that they got rid of so much but at the same time getting the first destiny levels back was a pretty cool move.

As for how they can get away with it: the games been out for like five years and is now f2p, I personally got my plays worth for the initial $60 and the activision era of destiny is gone and frankly I find that it benefited the game as a whole.
 
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NEbeast

Member
The last big update was a reboot of sorts and worked with what they were doing with the story, it sucks that they got rid of so much but at the same time getting the first destiny levels back was a pretty cool move.

mad for how they can get away with it: the games been out for like five years and is now f2p, the activision era of destiny is gone and frankly I find that it benefited the game as a whole.
This. It was either D3(under Activision) or a reboot of sorts. They removed a lot of content but it was stale anyway. They introduced the moon with shadowkeep and I can't remember the last time I went there outside of legendary lost sectors. The game is in a much better spot technically now the bloat has gone.
 

sainraja

Member
Back in the day I was a sort of a Destiny fan, it was among the first nextgen feeling games to me (despite being crossgen). I played it a lot, participated in events and even played PvP a lot which I never do. Then new games came, I left it behind.

I was curious what would Destiny 2 bring, a real (then) nextgen only sequel but was somewhat disappointed that it just looked as a big expansion to Destiny 1. I was contemplating to buy it anyway as I enjoyed the first game so much but other games got in the way, time went by and D2 became free to play. I was glad, thought it’s time for me to join, started doing the main story but eventually other games got in the way again.

Yesterday I felt the urge to play it now that it has a ps5 upgrade and thought I would continue the story where I left. Oh boy, how wrong I was. I was lost, didn’t know how to start it, so went to the internet and had to face the fact that Bungie removed a lot of content, including the main and dlc stories, entire planets etc. This means there is no way to play the story of Destiny 2 and new players just get flabbergasted with main characters that died, people they never heard of etc.

Now as I didn’t pay for this game, personally I don’t have too much right to complain but what about those people that paid a lot of money for the base game and dlcs? How is it acceptable that Bungie removes content that a lot of people paid serious money for? Where is the outrage for this? Cyberpunk has been under attack since release for having a couple of bugs but there is silence regarding this? I really can’t understand it.

As an important side note: this is what the glorious online only digital future means. You pay but have no rights at all. You just have to accept what your master does. Don’t forget this when you are cheering for this glorious digital future.
If you own Forsaken and Shadowkeep, you can still play that content. The new campaign is Beyond Light. So not everything is exactly 'gone'. Warmind & Curse of Osiris are gone and some of the planets/moons (e.g. Mars, Titan, Io) have been sunset or removed. The planets will come back in future expansions. They got rid of the opening campaign but we got 'New Light' in its place.
 
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SCB3

Member
Long story short, they made that content irrelevant and framed it as a waste of space in the games files and tbh, there were no real good reasons to visit them aside from maybe the stuff on Mars

Admittingly, the loading improved dramatically with Beyond Light though and they have said they will bring stuff back over time
 

Trogdor1123

Gold Member
This made me really mad too. Some of it was literally dlc. Brutal. Now, if it comes back later for free I won't be too upset as it makes sense story wise but we all know that won't happen.
 

Trogdor1123

Gold Member
If you own Forsaken and Shadowkeep, you can still play that content. The new campaign is Beyond Light. So not everything is exactly 'gone'. Warmind & Curse of Osiris are gone and some of the planets/moons (e.g. Mars, Titan, Io) have been sunset or removed. The planets will come back in future expansions. They got rid of the opening campaign but we got 'New Light' in its place.
So literally paying for stuff twice?
 

cormack12

Gold Member

Games like Destiny work on content rotation. If it's not part of the live season it makes sense to be vaulted and improved, recycled etc.

Its quite a scalable model and I would assume this is what we will see more of going forward.

If you're chasing loot why would you be playing levels that don't have powerful gear etc.
 
This is what put me off from the game. I used to play this religiously with friends on a weekly basis, but I think it's safe to say that I've officially retired from the game. I think they honestly should have just released a new game and let D2 live on like they did D1. After all the time and effort I poured into my character, I hate not being able to visit some of my favorite locations because it's in some stupid content vault.

I finally have more time to play other games on my backlog though, so I'm not too mad about having my gaming time freed up.
 

sainraja

Member
So literally paying for stuff twice?
No no, I don't think you will have to pay to get access to the planets or anything like that. I think the planets will just come back based on events that might take place in a given campaign - F2P players can go to Europa, which is a new planet they added. What Bungie's actual plans are? I am not sure. All I know is that they said the planets will be updated and will be rotated back in.
 
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godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
I also tried to pick it up after a long hiatus and I didn’t remember leaving my character where I found it and the story had pretty much retconned my progress and left me behind. Nothing made sense anymore so I quit the game and uninstalled it.
 
technically, they aren't removed completely. it's in a vault and in rotation. they could add that content back in at some point. it's basically a live service game. completely different games but it's kinda like how Fortnite rotates content a lot. it's just to help keep the game feeling fresh. unfortuantly it doesn't really seem to be working out for Destiny and they should definitely not be doing it with paid content. another excuse is that the game install size is too big to include everything so they ditch content to keep the size down.

i played D2 a lot and stopped. coming back was a fucking confusing mess. so yeah it's not gonna be good for new players.

i'm torn cause i think Bungie should move on to D3 and rethink the game design and structure but at the same time it's been 7 years since D1 and they don't seem to have learned a fucking thing. I think it might be best to just limp along with D2 and call quits on future Destiny games.
 
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D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
The way they rebooted the game completely obliterated any interest I may have had in it. Which is fine, I guess... I probably wasn't their target audience.
 
The way they rebooted the game completely obliterated any interest I may have had in it. Which is fine, I guess... I probably wasn't their target audience.
funnily enough i LOVED the game at launch when a lot of people were pissed (and yes I played D1). when the Forsaken expansion came out i stopped playing. the amount of grinding is insane. i don't mind grinding but it's ridiculous. so yeah i'm not their target audience either it seems. it's a shame cause it's a really awesome world and the combat is fun. Destiny is basically like a second job that you pay to work at.
 
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skit_data

Member
How did they get away so easily with making a game I bought for full price at launch completely free to play with no benefits for me as a previous owner?

That was a completely ass move
 

NEbeast

Member
It's always been so bizarre to me that the main campaign in D2 is just not in the game anymore lol
That was the main campaign 4 years ago, you can pick up shadowkeep and Beyond light and have a good idea of what's going on. The seasonal story telling is in a much better place and is actually cohesive.
I wouldn't be put off by the DCV - the game is finally in a great spot. They delayed the witch queen expansion and I have a feeling it's going to be one of the best. Hopefully they learned from stasis though, that shit was whack in pvp- which meant they neutered it in PVE too.
 
The writing was on the wall for a while in regards to Destiny and how Bungie treats it's community. I'm sure it's not their fault completely, but at the end of the day they have their name on the box. They're first attempt I kinda of forgive and attributed to growing pains and multiplatform releases, but by the time the second expansion came out, I was completely off the train. Thought, "maybe they learned their lesson for D2?" Nope, not really, pretty much the same exact shit I had issues with. Not remotely interested in the franchise for a 3rd game. Hope it does well for people who enjoy its sake, but I don't care a single bit anymore for that universe or franchise and would much rather Bungie move onto a different game. Granted I'm sure they are making more than enough money as it is because otherwise they would have made the changes people complain about, so I'm sure they'll just keep on keeping on until the well dries up.
 

sainraja

Member
How did they get away so easily with making a game I bought for full price at launch completely free to play with no benefits for me as a previous owner?

That was a completely ass move
I think what Bungie should have done (and I have the benefit of hindsight here but still) is released year 1/2 of Destiny 2 as a standalone title (no internet connection required, just the campaigns.) This way they can keep the live service game on a rotation and package sunset content as a separate game. :D
 
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Ah, Bungie and the Destiny series. Games that keep on taking rather than giving.

I was in on the ground floor with Destiny. Played many hundreds of hours, had a couple of regular raiding groups, was all in. Then the DLC started happening and also the weirdness with stripping out chunks of content for, well, I still don't know why. I bought all the DLC for Destiny 1 but man was I disappointed in the direction of the story and the content being added. I waited on 2 and the reviews and word of mouth warned me away. Tried it out when it went FTP and was glad I trusted my gut and skipped it.

I think Bungie had the largest goodwill barrier against bullshit of any game publisher or developer out there. Shenanigans happening within their game were rug swept and excused by their hardcore fans. It's a shame the game is where it is now, at least for me. Power to you if you love it but they won't get me back.
 
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GloveSlap

Member
Never knew about this. I had thought about doing the campaign at times, but i guess i won't bother. I played the first Destiny/Division and i've had about enough loot shooters to last me a lifetime.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
I think it was because the game was getting too large. I believe it was over 115 GB when they announced plans on cutting the first 3 years of levels and maps.
 

LRKD

Member
This means there is no way to play the story of Destiny 2 and new players just get flabbergasted with main characters that died, people they never heard of etc.

How is it acceptable that Bungie removes content that a lot of people paid serious money for? Where is the outrage for this?
My favorite part with the main character that died, is that when playing strikes, the main character is suddenly talking to you again during at least two of the strikes :messenger_tears_of_joy:

I can't agree enough though, I purchased every dlc from Destiny 1 up to Destiny 2's Shadowkeep (the second newest expansion), once they took out the dlcs I decided I will never directly support bungie again. I'm unbelievably pissed they took out shit I paid for, I probably paid close to 400$ on the two base games and dlcs at this point, and I never even purchased any microtransactions. The outrage is drowned out by all Bungies Defense Force Fanboys, none of them care that the games content got cut, or that bungie nickels and dimes players worse then anyone else in the industry. And Bungie doesn't care, their fans drown out complaints, and make up for any lost money, because now not only do they buy DLCs, and Eververse microtransactions, they also have season passes charging fans yet again, to play their game.

People like this guy VVVV


That was the main campaign 4 years ago, you can pick up shadowkeep and Beyond light and have a good idea of what's going on. The seasonal story telling is in a much better place and is actually cohesive.
I wouldn't be put off by the DCV - the game is finally in a great spot. They delayed the witch queen expansion and I have a feeling it's going to be one of the best. Hopefully they learned from stasis though, that shit was whack in pvp- which meant they neutered it in PVE too.
The story telling is still terrible, and the game is more incohesive then ever to a new player. You literally fight a shadow of the base game boss in Shadowkeep. Hell the next time you log in after beating NL campaign and you get your faced slammed with a cutscenes and story mission where they suddenly send your character to Europa, and start you on Beyond Light, before you've even had the chance to do Shadowkeep or Forsaken. So many things that happen in the game reference back to old campaigns, and even Destiny 1. A new players only chance of really knowing what's going on is looking it up online, which is completely unacceptable. The game is not in a great spot, go play some pvp, then comeback and try to say that with a straight face.

The content vaulting should absolutely be a turn off. They literally took away content players paid for. What if they 'vault' your paid eververse items? Then should we still, just ignore it? Where is the line drawn in what is okay to take away and what isn't, when you paid for it? It should never be okay.
 

Reizo Ryuu

Gold Member
They did it because of bloat, they kept adding things, which lead to a lot of content being sparsely populated.
I was not aware they got rid of the main quest though? I thought you could just initiate those from Amanda holliday in the hangar.
 

NEbeast

Member
My favorite part with the main character that died, is that when playing strikes, the main character is suddenly talking to you again during at least two of the strikes :messenger_tears_of_joy:

I can't agree enough though, I purchased every dlc from Destiny 1 up to Destiny 2's Shadowkeep (the second newest expansion), once they took out the dlcs I decided I will never directly support bungie again. I'm unbelievably pissed they took out shit I paid for, I probably paid close to 400$ on the two base games and dlcs at this point, and I never even purchased any microtransactions. The outrage is drowned out by all Bungies Defense Force Fanboys, none of them care that the games content got cut, or that bungie nickels and dimes players worse then anyone else in the industry. And Bungie doesn't care, their fans drown out complaints, and make up for any lost money, because now not only do they buy DLCs, and Eververse microtransactions, they also have season passes charging fans yet again, to play their game.

People like this guy VVVV



The story telling is still terrible, and the game is more incohesive then ever to a new player. You literally fight a shadow of the base game boss in Shadowkeep. Hell the next time you log in after beating NL campaign and you get your faced slammed with a cutscenes and story mission where they suddenly send your character to Europa, and start you on Beyond Light, before you've even had the chance to do Shadowkeep or Forsaken. So many things that happen in the game reference back to old campaigns, and even Destiny 1. A new players only chance of really knowing what's going on is looking it up online, which is completely unacceptable. The game is not in a great spot, go play some pvp, then comeback and try to say that with a straight face.

The content vaulting should absolutely be a turn off. They literally took away content players paid for. What if they 'vault' your paid eververse items? Then should we still, just ignore it? Where is the line drawn in what is okay to take away and what isn't, when you paid for it? It should never be okay.
Forsaken is 2 years old, how can they make 2 years of content cohesive to new players? As for strikes, they are classed as memories- that's why they still have cayde in them. I have played since Destiny 1, removing old content that I paid for 4 years ago doesn't bother me. It made no sense to keep it in the game with where the story is going. I bet you haven't played for months/years if you think the story is still as bad. As for pvp, I play trials every weekend and have zero problem going flawless. It's far from the best shooter out there but it feels great to play , they just need to balance some of the cheese weapons.
 
Yes it's shitty, OP, for sure. Bungie rightly should be dragged through the coals for pulling this shit. However, you derailed your own thread by including this in the OP:
Now as I didn’t pay for this game, personally I don’t have too much right to complain but what about those people that paid a lot of money for the base game and dlcs? How is it acceptable that Bungie removes content that a lot of people paid serious money for? Where is the outrage for this? Cyberpunk has been under attack since release for having a couple of bugs but there is silence regarding this? I really can’t understand it.

As an important side note: this is what the glorious online only digital future means. You pay but have no rights at all. You just have to accept what your master does. Don’t forget this when you are cheering for this glorious digital future.

There isn't a universe in which Cyberpunk can be considered as only having a "couple" of bugs.... heck the absurd level of bugginess wasn't even the only problem. What about the ridiculously poor design decisions (e.g. police spawning out of nowhere) and obscene PS4/XB1 versions of the game?

What Bungie pulled with Destiny 2 vaulting was arse, for sure, but let's not go crazy here.
 
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I got Destiny 2 for free with my 1080TI. By the time I finally got around to it the game had so much DLC, in game purchases and so much content removed, that I refused to even play it. The only time I even hear about the game anyway is when the Destiny subreddit revolts again over Bungie's latest terrible decisions.
 

sainraja

Member
They did it because of bloat, they kept adding things, which lead to a lot of content being sparsely populated.
I was not aware they got rid of the main quest though? I thought you could just initiate those from Amanda holliday in the hangar.
You can for Shadowkeep & Forsaken. The intro campaign Red War along with expansions: Curse of Osiris & Warmind are gone and any quests that were tied to the sunsetted planets are also gone. There are some old quests you can pick up from the vendor terminal next to the post master if you didn't get to before the sunset, but only for planets or activities that are in rotation. The Red War campaign was replaced with 'New Light' which you can go through in the current game.
 
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Arimer

Member
Its the reason i didn't buy the new expansion. I'm not going to pay you to have stuff taken away. I get that it might be phased out of relevance but it shoudl still be there. Why buy the new expansion when you may just take it away at any given time? Either charge me a monthly fee or charge me for content i get to keep.
 

makaveli60

Member
They did it because of bloat, they kept adding things, which lead to a lot of content being sparsely populated.
I was not aware they got rid of the main quest though? I thought you could just initiate those from Amanda holliday in the hangar.
I started there but Amanda gives no quests at all. I think she did before the “purge” but not anymore. And it’s a shame because I would really like to experience the story and the removed quests and especially planets. This is my biggest issue btw, removing whole planets.
 
I would still play some Destiny 2 today if I knew what the fuck was going on and if they varied up the gameplay loop more. I'm out until Destiny 3 and only jumping back in if they change the game for the better. Maybe no Acti will help. We'll see.
 

Stuart360

Member
Er unless things have changed over the last 4 or 5 months or so, all the campaigns are still in there. You have to go to the mechanic and she has the campaigns.
I literally played them a few months ago.

Also Cyberpunk has more than a couple of bugs lol. Have you seen their patch notes since release?, they have 'fixed' over 500 bugs, and still plenty to go.
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
I think since the average person playing destiny 2 is still playing Destiny 2 they would not care about lack of content considering what there playing, if they where concerned over having nothing to do they would not be playing Destiny 2, so removing things won't really make a difference to what there playing, because there used to having nothing and liking it.
 
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Warnen

Don't pass gaas, it is your Destiny!
Er unless things have changed over the last 4 or 5 months or so, all the campaigns are still in there. You have to go to the mechanic and she has the campaigns.
I literally played them a few months ago.

Also Cyberpunk has more than a couple of bugs lol. Have you seen their patch notes since release?, they have 'fixed' over 500 bugs, and still plenty to go.

it has, they took away half the planets. You can’t do story missions on areas not in game any more.
 

Stuart360

Member
it has, they took away half the planets. You can’t do story missions on areas not in game any more.
So you cant go to the mechanic (forgot her name), and get all the campaigns anymore? (i think she has 3 campaigns last time, the main campaign, and 2 from the firt few expansions).

Glad this thread was made then as i was thinking of downloading D2 again after finishing Metro Exodus.
 
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LRKD

Member
Forsaken is 2 years old, how can they make 2 years of content cohesive to new players? As for strikes, they are classed as memories- that's why they still have cayde in them. I have played since Destiny 1, removing old content that I paid for 4 years ago doesn't bother me. It made no sense to keep it in the game with where the story is going. I bet you haven't played for months/years if you think the story is still as bad. As for pvp, I play trials every weekend and have zero problem going flawless. It's far from the best shooter out there but it feels great to play , they just need to balance some of the cheese weapons.
They can do so many different things to fix the issue, many games have this issue where it's been a long running series, how do they make it accessible to both new and longtime fans? Well there are many ways, like adding new story missions for new players, or a comic book style recap where players can just read the events and story easily IF and WHEN they want to. There are plenty of things they could do, but they won't. That doesn't excuse the fact that for a new player, this game is completely terrible story wise. Even for long time players, the way Bungie try's to tell the story has always been done poorly, even when the story itself is good. Sure a returning player will know strikes are more like memories of events that already happened, but from the perspective of a new player it is absolutely an issue. The game has a major time problem with its story, lots of mmos have this problem, but Destiny's is significantly worse then the others with it's content vault.

Really I haven't played for months/years nice try all my characters are 1320+, I was doing VoG last night :messenger_tears_of_joy: Really nice attempt to try and invalidate my completely valid thoughts on the game though.

3WZwI0W.jpg


For PVP it has major issues, like not being updated in over a year, or reusing old maps that were balanced and created with a completely different meta in mind, particularly D1 maps. Nerfs are still happening across PvE and PvP. That's been a complaint since D1, people have been asking that they balance the two separately. It's terrible when they nerf something that works find in PvE, and is broken in PvP, and now its suddenly unusable in PvE, how is this still a problem?

Believe me I could go on for days with the problems the game has, I agree that it's a really fun shooter at it's base that can feel incredibly fun to play. But it's really lame for any fan of the game who complains, and then is dogpiled by fanboys who attack them for 'not really being a fan' or 'probably being someone who hasn't played in months/years'. This is Wasted Potential The Game, and the fanboys only make it worse by rolling over and accepting everything Bungie does,, maybe if the community ever actually complained about the many issues the game has it would've actually gotten better by now. Something Fans have said has been happening since TTK, "It's heading in the right direction, I'm sure by next update it'll be a good game"
 

Warnen

Don't pass gaas, it is your Destiny!
So you cant go to the mechanic (forgot her name), and get all the campaigns anymore? (i think she has 3 campaigns last time, the main campaign, and 2 from the firt few expansions).

Glad ithis thread was made then as i was thinking of downloading D2 again after finishing Metro Exodus.
nope they are gone

only Story stuff left is forsaken, beyond light and active season line
 
Back in the day I was a sort of a Destiny fan, it was among the first nextgen feeling games to me (despite being crossgen). I played it a lot, participated in events and even played PvP a lot which I never do. Then new games came, I left it behind.

I was curious what would Destiny 2 bring, a real (then) nextgen only sequel but was somewhat disappointed that it just looked as a big expansion to Destiny 1. I was contemplating to buy it anyway as I enjoyed the first game so much but other games got in the way, time went by and D2 became free to play. I was glad, thought it’s time for me to join, started doing the main story but eventually other games got in the way again.

Yesterday I felt the urge to play it now that it has a ps5 upgrade and thought I would continue the story where I left. Oh boy, how wrong I was. I was lost, didn’t know how to start it, so went to the internet and had to face the fact that Bungie removed a lot of content, including the main and dlc stories, entire planets etc. This means there is no way to play the story of Destiny 2 and new players just get flabbergasted with main characters that died, people they never heard of etc.

Now as I didn’t pay for this game, personally I don’t have too much right to complain but what about those people that paid a lot of money for the base game and dlcs? How is it acceptable that Bungie removes content that a lot of people paid serious money for? Where is the outrage for this? Cyberpunk has been under attack since release for having a couple of bugs but there is silence regarding this? I really can’t understand it.

As an important side note: this is what the glorious online only digital future means. You pay but have no rights at all. You just have to accept what your master does. Don’t forget this when you are cheering for this glorious digital future.
From my PoV this is only for the best
I played countless hours with the content I paid, so for me, that purchase lasted enough, think about every time we spend full price for games we just play one time for 10-15h and then will forever be on the shelf

Also, biggest improvement: less space on hdd

I've an old ass day one ps4 and having a 60gb like Destiny is sweet, when it was more than 100gb I basically had a ps4 just for it lol ( same problem now with fucking Warzone, I love that game but the enormous data size annoys me)
 
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