Destiny makers hope to bring players together

Destiny, which has been in production since Halo: Reach was released in 2010, has a lot riding on it. It's not only one of the most expensive video games ever made (Activision CEO Bobby Kotick pinned the cost at as much as $500 million, a number which developer Bungie has since backtracked and denied), but is also expected to be a revolutionary one after the success of Halo on Microsoft's Xbox consoles.

Destiny, which takes place 700 years into the future in the last city on Earth, brings together a firstperson shooter with a massively multiplayer online game. While available on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, it's the first big game release for the next-generation consoles.

Everyone wants to know one thing: Is it worth it? Since reviewers were allowed to play it a day before release, it had some worried that the game may not live up to the hype. We asked Destiny Design Lead Luke Smith what makes the game so revolutionary.




Here is his answer via email.

"Halo brought players together. Whether it was about lugging an Xbox to your friend's house for a LAN (a LAN — local area network party — is when a group of people connect together with computers or multiple game consoles to play a game) for some matches of Combat Evolved or battling on Xbox Live in Halo 2, bringing players together in the name of play is something we're deeply passionate about.

"Destiny is our next step forward in bringing players together. We've built a persistent online universe that we can't wait to expand. We've taken our action-game roots and built a suite of activities for every mood."

Developer Bungie warned players to take day-one reviews with a grain-of-salt.

"We don't believe Destiny is a typical shooter. You could experience the storyline, jump into a few rounds of competitive multiplayer and form a Fireteam of friends and take on all the Strikes and you would just be getting started."