Destiny isn't just Bungie's first new game since making Halo. It's also an attempt to meld two different game genres: The large in-depth games like World of Warcraft and the fast-paced action-oriented shooter games like Call of Duty.
Eric Hirshberg, head of Activision's publishing arm, calls this new effort a "shared world shooter," where players interact with one another throughout the game. It was also one of the hardest technologies to build, he added.
When Bungie invited gamers to play a prototype of Destiny in June, developers watched to see what elements of the game, be that exploration or fighting, would be most popular. Hirshberg said players appeared evenly attracted to each part of the game.
"There are so many different styles of play," he said. "People were pretty omnivorous with the content, and that's a great sign."
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| SCREENSHOT OF UPCOMING DESTINY |
One of the biggest challenges facing Destiny is the industry itself. Video games have changed significantly from when the first Halo landed more than a decade ago. Many of the best-selling games in that era, such as the theme park building game RollerCoaster Tycoon and world-controlling game The Sims, didn't have as intricate storylines, nor epic ambitions.
Fast-forward to this year and nearly every top game spins an epic story: Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed, which tells of massive conspiracies and two groups fighting over the future of humankind. Watch Dogs, another Ubisoft title, centers on a hacker out for revenge on the streets of Chicago. Grand Theft Auto V, from Take-Two Interactive Software, follows retired thieves as they get back in the game. Even Wolfenstein, a decades-old simplistic shooting game in which a World War II-era prisoner breaks free and goes on a rampage killing Nazis, gained a Hollywood-like plot in its latest rendition from Id Software.
Of course, plowing money and effort into a game doesn't always make it a hit. Star Wars: The Old Republic, a large online game from Electronic Arts, initially struggled to attract a large following when it was first released three years ago. In November 2012, EA began offering a free-to-play option, which helped make the game operationally profitable.
And perhaps the most pressure comes from the changing shape of the industry. Games made for mobile devices have become a key driver of higher game sales, with new business models of charging customers for tiny bits of a game, such as a way to finish it faster or for a different colored jacket for their character, have allowed some titles to gain considerable mass-market appeal. Strategy games on PCs have also made a comeback, in part due to the new business models that allow publishers to initially hand the game away for free.
One of those customers will be Jeremie Gregory, a 33-year old in Baton Rouge. He's devoting three days vacation time to play the game as much as he can when it's released. Gregory said he already played the game for 90 hours earlier this summer when Bungie offered the public a chance to try a pre-release version of the game for a limited time. He'll probably spend up to another 150 hours playing the game after it's released.
"I don't think I'll get disappointed, I really don't," he said. "I just have that feeling."
