I went and did some pocket math and found the point of comparison useful.
To illustrate, since HD2’s release date, here’s the rough approximation of how much you’d have to pay to get all the content released, minus the base game cost naturally:
HD2: 1000 SC per Warbond, about $10 per set unless you just play a bunch and accumulate SC. There will be six Warbonds in a week, five of them paid.
FINAL CONTENT COST: $0-$50
Fatshark: 9 cosmetics rotations, roughly 2300 Aquilas for an individual skin, call it about 3.5k for everything since there’s constant ‘lesser’ rotations for the non-setpiece bits and prices aren’t consistent. 4 skins every release, so about 12000 every release, give or take the repeats and previously acquired cosmetics. Aquilas cost $30 for 7000 at the largest bundle. You’ll need to buy about 15 Aquila bundles to pay things off. I’m gonna heavily undercut that under the assumption that the individual bits are common repeats you’d already have.
FINAL CONTENT COST: AT LEAST $400
Might I remind you that while HD2 is charging for actual weapons and content, Darktide is charging you for outfits.