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Destiny 2 Director Addresses Shader Microtransactions

Destiny 2 has drawn the ire of fans for some of its microtransactions and Game Director Luke Smith has gone on Twitter in hopes of calming the storm.

Ozzie Mejia

September 7, 2017 1:30 PM

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Destiny 2 has come under fire from the game's community for its microtransaction system. In particular, the change to the game's shader system has drawn the ire of the game's fans. Shaders are no longer an unlimited resource, but are now consumable items. Players can continue finding shaders across the game's worlds or purchase them with Silver purchased for real-money.

Destiny 2 Director Luke Smith took to Twitter (via Game Informer) to address these complaints.

Shaders are earned through gameplay: leveling, chests, engrams, vendors. We expect you’ll be flush w/ Shaders as you continue to play. (1/4)

— Luke Smith (@thislukesmith) September 7, 2017

When you reach level 20, Shaders will drop more often: vendor rewards, destination play and endgame activities. (2/4)

— Luke Smith (@thislukesmith) September 7, 2017

Shaders are now an ongoing reward for playing. Customization will inspire gameplay. Each planet has unique armor and Shader rewards. (3/4)

— Luke Smith (@thislukesmith) September 7, 2017

With D2, we want statements like "I want to run the Raid, Trials, or go back to Titan to get more of its Shader" to be possible. (4/4)

— Luke Smith (@thislukesmith) September 7, 2017

Smith's argument is that shaders become a more frequent drop after level 20, noting them as an incentive to play through Destiny 2's worlds to collect their unique drops. Of course, such an argument doesn't erase the fact that the shaders are still a real-money carrot dangling in front of the player throughout the game. It certainly feels like a disappointment for fans of the older system, potentially having to farm an activity to get a chance at a random shader drop that can only be applied to a single piece of gear. It feels like Bungie attempted to fix a system that was not broken to begin with.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?