Activision has revealed that Destiny 2 Forsaken sales have not lived up to the company’s expectations. The Forsaken expansion was meant to give hardcore fans what they were missing in a new Destiny à la The Taken King from the original Destiny.
During the Activision earnings call (via Kotaku) the publisher stated it was unhappy with the Destiny 2 Forsaken sales and would be looking to add new forms of monetization to appease investors. This could be troublesome as although Destiny 2‘s current microtransactions are relatively unoffensive at the moment we could see a shift to more aggressive tactics.
When Destiny 2 initially released in 2017, it was generally well received—we even called it “what Destiny should’ve been.” That being said, it lacked some of the more grindy elements that core fans of the previous game craved.
Since then Activision and Bungie have worked to try to expand the game’s appeal to include hardcore players. Almost every mechanic has received some tweaking and the current playerbase is arguably happy with the game.
As such, these poor sales may come as a surprise to many especially as the expansion was critically acclaimed. We found it to have the best campaign out of any Destiny 2 expansion yet with expansive and engaging areas. It seemed to address many issues for core players by including grinding, regular activities, and good endgame content. However, though it did revitalize the game, there was some concern that its high cost could put some people off.
Battle.net also has the PC version of Destiny 2 available for free until November 18, which potentially signal lackluster sales. Taking out the cost of the main game definitely seems like a strategy to try to get more people in to potentially buy expansions such as Forsaken. The core game was also part the PlayStation Plus free lineup for September 2018.
Activision COO Cody Johnson talked about Forsaken’s sales.
“We have not yet seen the full core re-engage in Destiny, which has led to the underperformance against expectations to date,” he said. “Some players are in ‘wait and see’ mode. If you’re in, you’re deeply engaged. If not, we think now’s the time to bring players back.”
