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Halo Developer Bungie Reveals Destiny and Its Vision of MMO Gaming

Posted by samzenpus on from the future-is-now dept.

MojoKid writes "Bungie, the company that brought forth Halo, is embarking on development of a new MMO title called Destiny that is aimed at being unlike any gaming experience we've seen. There are few hard details available, such as a launch date or pricing, but Bungie gave a preview that teases the game and showed off concept art. It's a large-scale MMO set in a post-apocalyptic world, but the gameplay and social interaction is supposed to be far more natural and fluid than previous generation MMOs. There will apparently not be a subscription model, so gamers won't have monthly fees to deal with, either. Bungie plans to develop a complex storyline with Destiny over the course of the next decade. There will be 10 books, complete with a story arc, so it follows that the world will evolve in a manner of speaking even as people participate in activities to change things within it."

12 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. Once free of microsoft by i+kan+reed · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Bungie seems to have immediately taken to making interesting new ideas once free of Microsoft. Who could have expected that?

    1. Re:Once free of microsoft by The+Moof · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Bungie made two more Halo games after breaking away from Microsoft (back in 2007), so I wouldn't say they immediately jumped on new ideas.

    2. Re:Once free of microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Bungie seems to have immediately taken to making interesting new ideas once free of Microsoft. Who could have expected that?

      Yeah cause a MMO and the post apocalyitic setting is so unique and fresh isnt it?

      Not to mention they claim it will be unlike any experince we have seen. Well, thats what every developer has said for the past deacade about their game. Every game that comes out pushes graphics to their limits, they all are unique experinces unlike anything we have seen before, they are all emotional experinces, all have complex stories and so on. THEY ALL SAY THAT.

      Not to mention bungie is owned by activision. How exactly is that making them free? Bungie basically just transfered from one jail to another. You do know that activision is incredibly static and unimmmaginative right? They care more about games that they can exploit every year right? If it doesnt have franchise appeal they dont want it.

    3. Re:Once free of microsoft by tlhIngan · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Bungie seems to have immediately taken to making interesting new ideas once free of Microsoft. Who could have expected that?

      You mean, making a game that would be monetized to all hell and back? That's an interesting new idea.

      Look at the publisher behind them - and look at what they did to Blizzard. Everything freaking thing is monetized, and Activision is also known for their nickle and diming of people.

      Plus, Bungie was spun off from Microsoft sround 2008 or so - they continued with Halo because Microsoft kept paying big bucks to keep the lights on (I think Microsoft guaranteed that - though Microsoft was not exclusively using Bungie).

      This game will probably be like what happened to Blizzard - you'll need a new combined battle.net/bungie.net account to play single player, you'll be asked for a name that will also permanently link you to that account (without warning you so they can ding you $10 because you used your real name). And yeah, you can play the campaign, but they'd also offer ways to upgrade yourself or buy more save slots.

      Etc. etc. I bought Starcraft 2. Wanted Diablo 3, but my poor SC2 experience meant I skipped D3 and will not buy the upcoming "expansion".

      Oh yeah, MMO - this will be like WoW as well. And yet another good studio circles the drain, driven that way by executive greed.

    4. Re:Once free of microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Look at the publisher behind them - and look at what they did to Blizzard. Everything freaking thing is monetized, and Activision is also known for their nickle and diming of people.

      That's a great theory except that Blizzard is a separate and autonomous division with its own corporate leadership. It is not run by Activision. Oh and the fact that Blizzard was nickle-and-diming long before the merger.

    5. Re:Once free of microsoft by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yup. That's the thing that kills nearly every MMO that has attempted to compete with WoW - bugs and launch performance issues.

      If you have performance issues on launch, you are doomed to fail if there is any viable competition out there, the initial experience will poison people's minds. If you DO have launch problems - you HAVE to resolve them before that first free month is up. If you don't - A ton of people are going to leave and not give you a second chance.

      As I understand it, WoW had some initial launch problems, but:
      1) Were resolved within the first month
      2) Didn't have much viable competition out there - now everyone has to compete with well established competitors.

      Aion had potential - but it had LOTS of initial problems that weren't solved until after much of their playerbase quit. They refused to provision additional servers with the end result being 2-3 hour queue times... Their reasoning was they didn't want to do a merge down the line. Yes, that's right, they PLANNED TO FAIL.

      Same with Warhammer Online - It had potential, but the lag and game balance issues weren't resolved in the first month. End result: dead game.

      --
      retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
  2. reminds me of rifts by ArsonSmith · · Score: 3, Insightful

    From http://palladiumbooks.com/

    Played that game from when it first came out all through the 90s. Always loved the art and would almost think the art on this link would fit seamlessly in with it.

    --
    Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
  3. Not coming to PC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    An MMO that is controller only.

    An MMO that isn't coming to PC, because no one likes to use keyboards and mice anymore.

    The shark, it has been jumped.

    1. Re:Not coming to PC by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I really wanted to hate all console FPSes and then I played Halo. I am well known as a Microsoft antagonist so you know I am not just being a fanboy. Halo is different from other console FPSes. I don't know why, what it is, I don't claim to know, I'm not a game designer and frankly I'm not a hardcore gamer and never really have been, though I have spent possibly entirely too many hours gaming anyway.

      I still think the best multiplayer FPS experience was LMCTF on Quake, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate something a little less twitchy.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:Not coming to PC by FyRE666 · · Score: 3, Funny

      "And not really even MMO. It's more, as I understand it, like Journey. That is, you encounter other people in certain circumstances."

      So it's like SWTOR then?

      --
      Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
    3. Re:Not coming to PC by h4rr4r · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I like console FPS actually. I loved GoldenEye. Halo sucks, it is an FPS dumbed down for the fratboy set.

  4. Books? by Extremus · · Score: 4, Funny

    So they plan to release books with a storyline that is subsumed by the activities of the players in the game? That sounds very nice. It is a like a glorified log file of some sort.