Pay as Much as Destiny Costs to Level Up Your Character With New Upgrade Pack

Destiny will now allow you to take any of the game's three characters - Titan, Warlock, and Hunter - directly to Level 25 if you are willing to cough up a few thousand rupees, it seems.

Micro-transactions are the staple in mobile gaming. The biggest earners on either Google's or Apple's ecosystem are games such as Candy Crush and Clash of Clans. But a similar approach to AAA titles remains tricky, as you can very easily turn off hardcore gamers who are a vocal group.

Until now, instead of character progression, developer Bungie had opted for offering a bunch of emotes and dances in exchange for real money back in October. There seems to be a shift in strategy with these new upgrade packs; the company seems to be favouring progression boosts with Destiny, which is possibly a way to get new entrants on the same plane as ones that have been playing since last year.

In an interview with Eurogamer at PlayStation Experience this month, Bungie senior designer Derek Carroll mentioned that the future of Destiny would be "more event-based" and less of "monolithic DLC packs". It seems these level upgrade packs are the first of many upcoming things meant to restock the treasury and keep the development ongoing.

But there is heavy backlash from the gaming community on two accounts. One is the high asking price of Rs. 1,480 (Xbox) / Rs. 2,497 (PlayStation); which in itself is comparable to the price of the entire game at Rs. 2,500 for the former and Rs. 2,750 for the latter.

And secondly, Destiny fans on user-curated news website and forum Reddit are complaining of the real-money upgrade in question. According to multiple users, getting from level 0 to 25 isn't enough of a "grind" - gamer talk for repetitive tasks - and the resulting level isn't enough to compete with veteran players.

Fans think this is a clever move on Bungie's part, hoping to capture new gamers who wouldn't mind the extra pinch of the upgrade pack along with the game during the Christmas period, and are warning off prospective buyers.