First, your analogy is flawed. More appropriate would be: You bought an iPhone 5 when it was new for $200. A year later your friend buys an iPhone 5s for $150. It has all of the tech of your phone, plus some new bells and whistles, but market pressure and cheaper manufacturing have brought the price down. It is your perception that you got "ripped off" because his superior phone cost less than yours. However, your friend has been durdling around for the last year with a Nokia flip phone while you've been enjoying the functionality of your smartphone. You've gotten value of being the early adopter of the new tech, and your friend is getting the value of you making that tech successful. Next, it is fair to think of The Taken King as Destiny 1.5. To bring new players in a deal must be made, as $40 + $35 + $40 is a large initial investment for a game. Day 1 players, "xmas noobs", etc. have paved the way for Destiny to be successful, and Bungie/Activision are marketing in such a way to continue to grow the brand. Finally, regarding the exotic class items and shaders. The class items give you an XP buff. Big deal, you're already level 20, you have a stockpile of everything. You have great exotic armor that actually does something useful in game, so who exactly is going to be equipping an exotic class item? Oh that's right, new players! Who don't have exotics, who need help getting to 20 (where the real game starts), and who need help accruing materials we've been swimming in since February. Same can be said for the exclusive shaders. Why would I want one that comes with the bargain priced edition when I'm rocking Arctic Proxy, God of War, and Revenant! Shaders I picked up through the endless grind that demonstrates my OG status. [b]Tl; dr:[/b] early adopters get value out of beating the crowd; $115 is too steep a pricetag to bring in new blood; exclusive class items and shaders are pointless for established players