Starting on October 13, Destiny players will be able to spend real money to purchase new in-game currency called “Silver.” Once they have Silver, they can buy up to 18 new emotes from Tess Everis, a Tower merchant memorable for inspiring dialogue such as “Hmm,” “Interesting,” and “Uh huh.”
Don’t worry, you do not need to buy emotes to succeed in the game. Emotes are purely cosmetic.
“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,” wrote Bungie on their website, “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.”
Destiny has a huge user base, and adding microtransactions is one way for them to keep getting money from that base without releasing massive expansions like The Taken King.
If you just want to sample an emote or two, Bungie is going to give every player some free Silver to try out when the update goes live on the 13th. Since Destiny is introducing a whole new currency, it’s safe to say that emotes are the tip of the iceberg with these microtransactions.
“Our goal is to continue creating experiences that will keep the game fresh, fun, and surprising,” Bungie wrote. Many games release DLC and other bonus content in a trickle to keep their community alive. For now, we just have to wait and see what else our Silver will be good for.
In the meantime, watch some beautiful videos of all the things you can do with Destiny emotes, and feel inspired.
(Skip to the 2-minute mark for this one—it’s worth it.)
