Bungie seems to like cleaning themselves off from stepping in the mud only to open a small gate and fall into quicksand. That seems to be the company’s motto these days in how they handle DLC, microtransactions and events in Destiny 2.

Following on the heels of the studio gating vanilla content from Destiny 2 in order to force players to buy the new Curse of Osiris expansion. That controversy came right off the heels of Bungie capping XP gains for hardcore grinders in order to force them to buy XP pots from the cash shop.

All these nagging machinations for skullduggery and grifting has soured the Destiny 2 community to the point of almost no return (then again, one would have thought that gamers would have learned their lesson with the XP caps). This latest controversy centers around the Eververse cash shop items that can be purchased with silver, which in turn is purchased with real money. The Eververse has been consistently and constantly updated with new armor, loot, and vehicles for players to purchase.

So why exactly is that a problem? Well, gamers realized that there’s no longer a need to grind to unlock stuff when you can just pay real money for it. In fact, they’ve begun to notice that in-game vendors are selling fewer items while more of those same items seem to be appearing in the premium cash shop.

Destiny 1 was “Wow, nice ship from the raid, I need that(spams raid)” Destiny 2 is “Wonder how many engrams they had to buy to get that exotic ghost” no more incentive to play from seeing other guardians gear etc.

— Scott Abate (@BFLO_Gamer) December 23, 2017

As pointed out by Forbes, Bungie’s game director, Christopher Barrett, took to Twitter to explain that they have heard the complaints loud and clear, writing across a series of tweets…

“For the upcoming Iron Banner and Faction Rally events, in addition to brand new seasonal armor Ornaments, we’re adding new themed Sparrows, Ghosts, Ships, and Shaders to the reward pools. Also, early next year, we’re refactoring Raid itemization across the game. The most difficult activities should be the most rewarding.

 

“And finally, I know we say it a lot, but we hear your feedback on Eververse. We both want our players to feel respected, and to deliver great content regularly to our community. Expect lots of discussion with the dev team and an update on our path forward after the new year.

 

“One more for good measure. We have short term and long term solutions for Vault space in the works, since I know that is another hot topic.”

The issue reached peak fever when the hashtag #RemoveEververse began to trend, forcing Bungie to take notice of the complaints from their audience.

As some other articles have pointed out, cash shops are mostly tolerated in premium AAA $60 games so long as they don’t impede or intrude on the gameplay. In this case, Destiny 2 fans recognized that the Eververse was constantly expanding and not with cosmetic items but with high-tier armor and gear that was previously restricted to high-level raids or special community events. Seeing the high-tier gear available for purchase with real money essentially says that you no longer have to play the game to get the good stuff, you just have to pay for it.

YouTuber Darkside Royalty Lore did a detailed breakdown of which items have been gated and which items have been removed from the standard vendors.

There’s an unspoken honor code in gaming where higher tier equipment needs to be earned, not bought. Whenever you buy anything in a game that boosts your abilities, stats, or status, it’s called “pay-to-win”. In this case, gamers feel as if Bungie is impeding on the honor code and turning the game into something undesirable.

As Barrett, the Eververse issue will be addressed in an update set to arrive in early 2018 for the PC, PS4 and Xbox One versions of Destiny 2.