‘Destiny’ The Next Game From Halo Creators, Says Source
Michael McWhertor — Bungie's follow-up to the Halo series is a massively multiplayer online first-person shooter, according to a source claiming to have knowledge of the game's development. That sci-fi shooter is currently named Destiny, he says, Bungie's original post-Halo franchise.
That source also claims to be a recently terminated contractor, part of a group of an estimated 30 non-salaried employees let go from Bungie. It's not uncommon for contract and temp employees to be let go after a project completion on the scale of Halo: Reach, but that source cited claims of "budgetary concerns" and alleges unfair treatment.
Update: Bungie responds to contract termination claims on its official site: "The claim is false. Bungie has never been asked to lay off any employees or contract employees by our publisher, Activision-Blizzard, for any reason. The talented professionals who grace our offices day in and day out are the lifeblood of Bungie – our most cherished commodity – and the unsubstantiated rumors posted today are in direct opposition to the culture and values that we believe make Bungie an exceptional place to work, and to call home."
The ex-Bungie employee says that Destiny, codenamed "Tiger," will run on a new Bungie-developed graphics engine and feature unique online connectivity and matchmaking technology. It was also bluntly likened to "WoW in space."
Bungie creative director Joseph Staten hinted at last year's Game Developers Conference Online that the independent studio might be building an online persistent world. Bemoaning that Halo players spent mere hours in the developer's games, Staten wondered aloud "Wouldn't it be great if we could make a world that was always there for you?"
The creators of Halo and Marathon are currently working on a multi-platform project for Activision Blizzard, part of a ten year publishing agreement.
Kotaku has contacted Bungie and Activision Publishing representatives seeking comment and clarification and will update with any response.
May I bring my child to the show?
No children are admitted to the exhibit halls. Absolutely no one under the age of 18 (including infants and toddlers) is permitted to attend Toy Fair. There are no childcare facilities at the Javits Center. Please save yourself and your child the stress and embarrassment of being turned away.
A toy fair that isn't for children.
WHAT IN THE FUCK.
yeah and why do they show MOVIES at COMIC-Con
COME ON
That's a good point as well. Tons of bullshit at comic-con that's unneeded. Take a lot of that shit to a media-con.
HULO: An epic sci-fi adventure about space marines who have to prevent an intergalatic force from invading their home planet. It's nothing like Marathon or Halo!
I don't get the Bungie love. I never liked Marathon and Halo was so generic and shitty I don't even know where to start.
HULO: An epic sci-fi adventure about space marines who have to prevent an intergalatic force from invading their home planet. It's nothing like Marathon or Halo!
I don't get the Bungie love. I never liked Marathon and Halo was so generic and shitty I don't even know where to start.
itt: "people like this game that i dislike, i can't seem to wrap my head around this concept, it is a mystery"
itt: "people like this game that i dislike, i can't seem to wrap my head around this concept, it is a mystery"
No, I can wrap my head pretty easily around the concept of the general public latching onto something generic and disposable. :tophat
I don't get the Bungie love.
They make console shooters that play pretty well and seem like they interact with the community quite a bit. They're also pretty good at using the most generic of settings (HUMANS VS ALIENS) to tell a fairly interesting story.
Great music too.
although i am not currently a halo fan, i bought an xbox just to play it
i remember going over to a neighbor's house, watching him play halo for a while, then buying an xbox the next day (i think it had dropped to $199)
devil box
do dorfs live inside the devil box
I think Bungie has lost too much talent at this point to make something I can get excited over. Reach is a really solid game, but as a fan of the series I feel that it is running on fumes. Maybe a new IP can allow them to update their matchmaking system but I don't think they are going to magically be concerned with balance
I think Bungie has lost too much talent at this point to make something I can get excited over. Reach is a really solid game, but as a fan of the series I feel that it is running on fumes. Maybe a new IP can allow them to update their matchmaking system but I don't think they are going to magically be concerned with balance
It's solid because they're just dialing that shit in at this point.
And I love FPS games, just not boring mediocre ones.
I think Bungie has lost too much talent at this point to make something I can get excited over. Reach is a really solid game, but as a fan of the series I feel that it is running on fumes. Maybe a new IP can allow them to update their matchmaking system but I don't think they are going to magically be concerned with balance
It's solid because they're just dialing that shit in at this point.
And I love FPS games, just not boring mediocre ones.
This comes from someone that hasn't been the biggest Halo guy since Halo 2 but you said you never liked it from the get go. So I don't get your point. What console fps games have you been playing since the launch of Halo up until now that are leagues better than Halo?
Serious question.
I think Bungie has lost too much talent at this point to make something I can get excited over. Reach is a really solid game, but as a fan of the series I feel that it is running on fumes. Maybe a new IP can allow them to update their matchmaking system but I don't think they are going to magically be concerned with balance
It's solid because they're just dialing that shit in at this point.
And I love FPS games, just not boring mediocre ones.
This comes from someone that hasn't been the biggest Halo guy since Halo 2 but you said you never liked it from the get go. So I don't get your point. What console fps games have you been playing since the launch of Halo up until now that are leagues better than Halo?
Serious question.
Call of Duty :patel
Battlefield ______
‘Destiny’ The Next Game From Halo Creators, Says Source
Michael McWhertor — Bungie's follow-up to the Halo series is a massively multiplayer online first-person shooter, according to a source claiming to have knowledge of the game's development. That sci-fi shooter is currently named Destiny, he says, Bungie's original post-Halo franchise.
That source also claims to be a recently terminated contractor, part of a group of an estimated 30 non-salaried employees let go from Bungie. It's not uncommon for contract and temp employees to be let go after a project completion on the scale of Halo: Reach, but that source cited claims of "budgetary concerns" and alleges unfair treatment.
Update: Bungie responds to contract termination claims on its official site: "The claim is false. Bungie has never been asked to lay off any employees or contract employees by our publisher, Activision-Blizzard, for any reason. The talented professionals who grace our offices day in and day out are the lifeblood of Bungie – our most cherished commodity – and the unsubstantiated rumors posted today are in direct opposition to the culture and values that we believe make Bungie an exceptional place to work, and to call home."
The ex-Bungie employee says that Destiny, codenamed "Tiger," will run on a new Bungie-developed graphics engine and feature unique online connectivity and matchmaking technology. It was also bluntly likened to "WoW in space."
Bungie creative director Joseph Staten hinted at last year's Game Developers Conference Online that the independent studio might be building an online persistent world. Bemoaning that Halo players spent mere hours in the developer's games, Staten wondered aloud "Wouldn't it be great if we could make a world that was always there for you?"
The creators of Halo and Marathon are currently working on a multi-platform project for Activision Blizzard, part of a ten year publishing agreement.
Kotaku has contacted Bungie and Activision Publishing representatives seeking comment and clarification and will update with any response.
The claim is false. Bungie has never been asked to lay off any employees or contract employees by our publisher, Activision-Blizzard, for any reason.nice PR
So this isn't the Titan project (alleged mmo-fps) Blizzard is working on, but a separate fps mmo?
they better have a backup game planned
Bungie confirms MMO.
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/115/1153533p1.html
Oh well, at least it's not a game I feel compelled to convince myself I'll like.
Activision Bungie contract unsealed in Call of Duty case
By Alex Pham and Ben Fritz
May 21, 2012, 3:13 p.m.
Details of video game publisherActivision Blizzard Inc.'s high-profile deal in 2010 with Bungie Inc. to make an original game series has been made public for the first time as part of a separate lawsuit involving the Call of Duty game franchise.
The deal with Bungie, considered one of the hottest studios in the industry, at the time helped Activision save face in the midst of an ugly legal fight with former Call of Duty developers Jason West and Vincent Zampella, whom Activision had fired a month earlier in March 2010. But at what cost?
Activision's contract with Bungie, recently unsealed as part of Activision's lawsuit against West and Zampella, outlines exactly what those costs are.
The 27-page agreement calls for Bungie to develop four "sci-fantasy, action shooter games," code-named "Destiny," released every other year, beginning in the fall of 2013. Bungie also agreed to put out four downloadable expansion packs code-named "Comet," every other year beginning in the fall of 2014. Activision has never disclosed release plans for Bungie's titles.
The first Destiny game will initially only be available on Microsoft's Xbox 360 consoles, as well as its potential successor, which the contract refers to as the "Xbox 720." Later games would be made for Xbox consoles as well as Sony Corp.'s expected successor to the PlayStation 3, and on personal computers.
Bungie would be entitled to royalties ranging from 20% to 35% of "operating income," the amount left over after Activision deducts its costs, including development, production and marketing expenses.
Under the contract, which may have been amended since it went into effect on April 16, 2010, Activision would also pay Bungie $2.5 million a year in bonuses between 2010 and 2013 if the Bellevue, Wash., studio meets certain quality and budget milestones. Bungie gets another $2.5 million if the first Destiny game achieves a score of 90 or better out of 100 on GameRankings.com, a site that summarizes reviews by game critics.
The contract also reveals for the first time that Bungie is working on a potential successor to its Marathon game, which became a cult hit after it was published in 1994 for the Apple Mac. The document refers to Bungie's right to devote no more than 5% of its staff to develop an action-shooter prototype dubbed Marathon while Bungie remains under contract with Activision.
You can read the full contract here.
What does this have to do with the Call of Duty case?
Plenty, argued West and Zampella's attorney, Robert M. Schwartz. In a brief filed May 1, Schwartz wrote that his clients took a smaller royalty, relative to similar contracts with top talent such as Bungie, in exchange for having more creative control over the Call of Duty franchise. West and Zampella, Schwartz argued, are entitled to compensation for the value of that creative authority, which could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars depending on how the royalties are calculated. Activision and Schwartz's clients each are alleging total damages of as much as $1 billion.
Of course, the two highly complex contracts are apples and oranges. Among the many differences is that West and Zampella were employees of Activision, while Bungie is an independent developer operating under a publishing deal with Activision. In addition, Bungie owns the intellectual property for the Destiny and Comet games, whereas Activision owns the Call of Duty franchise.
Should the case go to trial as planned May 29, it will ultimately be up to a jury to go through the contracts and decide who will end up having to pay out.
An Activision spokeswoman did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Harold Ryan, the president of Bungie, did not respond to an email asking for comment.
How is it an MMO if they are releasing sequels every other year?
Interesting.
Also very canny of MS to tie up the first game as a exclusive. I thought they let Bungie get away relatively cleanly and with little complaint now we know why.
Pass on all 4 games if the first installment is exclusive to one platform.
The first Destiny game will initially only be available on Microsoft's Xbox 360 consolesIf they were trying to shoot for another CoD, they have already failed. This is dead in the water saleswise.
Well, that just happened…
Posted by DeeJ at 5/21/2012 7:09 PM PDT
So, yeah. While we’re not ready to show you what we’ve been working on, we can reconfirm that we are hard at work on our new universe. We can’t wait for you to see it.
See youstarsidein 2013.
QuoteThe first Destiny game will initially only be available on Microsoft's Xbox 360 consolesIf they were trying to shoot for another CoD, they have already failed. This is dead in the water saleswise.
Bungie gets another $2.5 million if the first Destiny game achieves a score of 90 or better out of 100 on GameRankings.com,
Bungie gets another $2.5 million if the first Destiny game achieves a score of 90 or better out of 100 on GameRankings.com,
lawlz
i mean i knew reviews for big games were b.s., but i never knew that there was SO MUCH money tied into it
That's high-larious.
Marathon making a potential comeback is cool, though!
Am I the only one who sees this contract as heavily stacked in Acti's favor?
It's just weird because when Bungie was leaving MS they were high-falootin' like they could basically write their own contracts with whomever they wished.
Isn't Kotick an extremely good higher-up manager from some non-gaming related company? Like some banking CEO or something?
As far as the Metacritic thing, devs and the media get all fussed about it, but personally I don't really have an issue. You need some metric to determine quality. There are arguably better ways to do it of course. But devs always think whatever they put out was quality work and warranted a great bonus. Any alternative system they would have a problem with too.