Video Games: Bungie's Destiny Could Be Bigger than Halo
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- July 31, 2014
By James DeRuvo (doddleNEWS)
When you go back about seven years, which is an eternity in the video game world, Bungie and Microsoft were at the top of the heap thanks to Halo. The driving force behind XBox 360 sales, Halo was the number one first person shooter game on the boards, and it has since spawned numerous, multimedia spin-offs, including the upcoming Halo series by Steven Spielberg and a feature by Ridley Scott. Then, out of nowhere, Bungie got spun off from Redmond, leaving Halo in the hands of a new Microsoft publisher 343 Industries. Halo was doing just fine after the split (at least until TitanFall debuted), but with Destiny, Bungie, and Activision stand poised to have a bigger video game than they ever did with Master Chief and his band of renowns.
If you look at it with discerning eye, there’s quite a few similarities between Halo and Destiny. Both are first person shooters. Both wage war against a hoard of alien brigands, both have robotic like companions, and both have cool fighters with space armor. But that’s where the similarities end.
For a while, Halo has at its core a dedicated military wing devoted to protecting humanity against the hoards of the Covenant, Destiny deals with rising from the ashes of an invasion that has already happened, and it cost humanity dearly.
“Players are cast as Guardians of the last city on Earth, who will explore the ancient ruins of our solar system from the red dunes of Mars to the lush jungles of Venus,” says the Destiny Press Release. Able to wield incredible power, gamers must battle humanity’s enemies and reclaim all that was lost during the collapse of mankind’s Golden Age.”
As a Guardian, players are guided through this adventure thanks to “Ghost,” a floating robotic companion voiced by Game of Thrones‘ Peter Dinklage. After working your way through the ruins of earth, particularly old Russia, you hop in a space ship and head out to deep space, stopping at “The Tower,” your main hub for going on major missions and resupplying your weapons and armor.
And what’s neat here is that you get to see your character resupply in third person, and then go on missions in first person. Once on a mission, you have a choice between social modes like competitive and cooperative online game play or merely have a solo adventure. And you are bound to run into mentors like one voiced by Bill Nighy (Pirates of the Caribbean) who encourage you to “push back the darkness.”
And the beta has been huge, with nearly 5 million players getting to try out the network stress test that Bungie held for the game earlier this month.” Hosting a beta at this scale is an incredible feat, so we’re thrilled to see the phenomenal response,” said Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg. “This is the biggest beta of this console generation by a wide margin and the largest console beta ever for a new video game IP to date. But the beta is just a taste of what’s to come.”
In a story-driven universe, Destiny unfolds through grand tales and epic adventures by immersing players in a bold new universe filled with cooperative, competitive, public, and social activities, all seamlessly connected.
So with nearly 5 million players getting their taste of the limited public Beta, Destiny stands poised to be a Halo killer. But with the juggernaut of ancillary Halo properties now, I rather doubt Master Chief will even notice. For more information, visit www.DestinyTheGame.com or www.Bungie.net. and?get exclusive updates through Destiny on Facebook, on Twitter, and YouTube.
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Press Release:
DESTINY BETA CONCLUDES AS BIGGEST BETA
IN THIS CONSOLE GENERATION;
Largest Console Beta for a New Video Game IP
Over 4.6 Million Fans Played Beta
Santa Monica, CA – July 30, 2014 – Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI), and Bungie today confirmed millions of people have played their upcoming and award-winning game Destiny during their beta test to gather vital information in preparation for launch. The Destiny Beta included a sampling of major activities featured in the full game. The beta began first on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 on July 17 and came to a close Sunday evening, with 4,638,937 unique players participating.
“This is the biggest beta of this console generation by a wide margin and the largest console beta ever for a new video game IP to date,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. “Hosting a beta at this scale is an incredible feat, so we’re thrilled to see the phenomenal response. But the beta is just a taste of what’s to come. We’re counting down the days to our launch day, September 9th.”
“We were totally blown away by the number of people who played the beta,” said Pete Parsons, COO of Bungie. “We surpassed even our own goals and the feedback was invaluable. We cannot thank the community enough, the response was humbling and in the weeks ahead we’ll be working hard to ensure that Destiny lives up to the expectations at launch.”
About Destiny
Players are cast as Guardians of the last city on Earth, who will explore the ancient ruins of our solar system from the red dunes of Mars to the lush jungles of Venus. Able to wield incredible power, gamers must battle humanity’s enemies and reclaim all that was lost during the collapse of mankind’s Golden Age. In a story-driven universe, Destiny unfolds through grand talesand epic adventures by immersing players in a bold new universe filled with cooperative, competitive, public, and social activities, all seamlessly connected. Destiny is rated T for Teen by the ESRB (Animated Blood and Violence).
For more information, visit www.DestinyTheGame.com. For exclusive updates, follow the official Destiny social channels at www.facebook.com/DestinyTheGame and @DestinyTheGame on Twitter, and interact directly with the developers at www.Bungie.net.
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