Soon, Destiny players will be re-introduced to a returning vendor in The Tower by the name of Tess Everis who’s new inventory focuses solely on the game’s more expressive goods.
Tess will return to The Tower next Tuesday, October 13, with a set of brand new new emotes, 18 initially, much like the ones that were included in the Legendary Edition of Destiny: The Taken King last month. Accepted currency is “Silver,” which, as you might have guessed, must be purchased through the Xbox Live Marketplace or the PlayStation Network with real life money.
In a news update on Bungie.net, the studio was quick to point out that “these emotes are completely optional, and won’t impact the action game in any way.”
“If you’re not interested in what Tess has to offer, you won’t ever be forced to pluck an item off of her shelf. You’ll still receive updates to the game, and you won’t lose a Crucible encounter or fail to clear a Raid because you didn’t have the right Eververse Trading Company emote equipped.”
In the spirit of transparency, Bungie also took a moment to explain where the funds used to purchase Silver will go.
“Our plan is to use these new items to bolster the service provided by our live team for another full year, as they grow and create more robust and engaging events that we’ll announce later this year,” Community Manager “DeeJ” rote. “It has been, and continues to be, our goal to deliver updates to the game. Going forward, our live team is also looking to grow beyond vital updates and improvements to focus on world events, experiences, and feature requests.”
UPDATE: According to sources who came to Kotaku, Destiny’s future DLC plan entails free content updates, including additional quest lines and missions, trickled throughout the months leading up to Fall 2016 when Destiny 2 is expected to ship. That means no more paid expansions like The Dark Below, House of Wolves, or The Taken King until then.
With Tess’ arrival in The Tower next Tuesday, Bungie says it will gift all Guardians with enough free Silver to “buy an emote or two.”
Remember, Tess isn’t the only NPC making a return to Destiny Year Two next week. Lord Saladin and his Iron Banner will also make a comeback with new gear and a few new tweaks to the event itself. Here’s the full rundown.
To us, the trade of real life money for Silver and Emotes sounds like a fairly harmless addition to the game’s economy and is largely ignorable if a player so chooses. What’s your take on it? Tell us in the comments below.