Rumour: Bungie New IP (Destiny)

[Stoney Mason]

‘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.

http://uk.kotaku.com/5762663/is-destiny-the-next-game-from-the-creators-of-halo

[MCD]

>world of toys

What faggotry is this.

[maxy]

adult toys

this is the website if i'm not mistaken

http://www.toyassociation.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=2&ContentID=10203

not open to public

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.

[maxy]

It's for the industry,toddlers not allowed

[iconoclast]

A toy fair that isn't for children.

WHAT IN THE FUCK.

Toy Fair is like E3 for toys

[ManaByte]

 

[Howard Alan Treesong]

yeah and why do they show MOVIES at COMIC-Con

COME ON

[ManaByte]

woooosh

[Howard Alan Treesong]

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.

and why is it called the Consumer Electronics Show ... when it's for Manufacturers???

[Eel O'Brian]

how come there are no rides at the toy fair

[GilloD]

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.

[Diunx]

GilloD

[Great Rumbler]

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.

Truth bombs being dropped left and right, Xbots torn to shreds [to no one's tears].

[GilloD]

I mean. I guess I know why people like it: It's a pretty balanced, good looking, competitive shooter. But I'd rather play an audacious and troubled IP than SPACE MARINE GAME.

It's not a game FOR me and I know that and so my complaining is kind of goofy. It's like me going WHY DOES PET FOOD TASTE SO BAD but, anyway. I don't know. It's like the Olive Garden of games.

But Halo 1 was seriously pretty crappy. The first level was pretty great and then like the first level on the planet was cool, but the second half of the game is just the first half in reverse.

Shrug. End! -Fin-

[Mr. Gundam]

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.

I think they'll call it OVAL.

Actually, what about a Marathon reboot? MS doesn't own that, right?

[Cormacaroni]

how do we parse this bloody awful sentence?

'a new property from Bungie and an innovative new universe with broad appeal that will be revealed at Toy Fair later this week and will bring the world of toys, video games and the Internet together in an unprecedented way. These investments should better position Activision Blizzard for long-term growth and enable it to continue expanding its position as the largest digital publisher.'

Is the 'new property from Bungie' totally unrelated to the 'innovative new universe' or are they the same thing?

[Diunx]

I think they mean that bungie created a universe so big and expansive that they will be able to milk it for decades to come.

[Smooth Groove]

I've never been a big Halo fan but there are plenty of things it does really well, especially compared to console shooters, like the dynamic AI, CO-OP and joypad controls.  My main problem with it is that it never got ported to the PC after the 2nd game, where it belongs.  Having played Halo with 60fps and KB/M, I just can't go back to the ghetto console experience. 

[ch1nchilla]

I've never really understood the appeal of Halo. I played Halo 1 and then, except for admittedly fun drunk multiplayer at friends', pretty much skipped the others until Reach, which was extremely disappointing. Shit-ass setting and visuals, shitty gunplay, shitty length, ALL MEDIOCRE EVERYTHING. It's too bad I don't live in the States or I would've sold that shit immediately.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I bet they're bringing back Oni.

[close]

[Eel O'Brian]

itt:  "people like this game that i dislike, i can't seem to wrap my head around this concept, it is a mystery"

[Smooth Groove]

Do you even like shooters?  A lot of people have said that Reach is the best Halo ever. 

[Bocsius]

A lot of people are wrong.

[Great Rumbler]

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. 

[Smooth Groove]

I've never played a Halo that's as bad as chinchila described.  Most gamers that hate Halo are really just FPS haters. 

[Brehvolution]

65.59.233.231

Nope. Still the same IP.

[Eel O'Brian]

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. 

well, generic is opinion, but people playing the same game for years up until the day the entire online system is shut down would argue against the disposable charge

[Stoney Mason]

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.

They made the definitive shooter that brought shooters to the masses and took a genre that was popular on the PC and made it so popular on consoles that it completely changed the destiny of the genre and the economics of the game industry. Call of Duty shares a little bit of credit here also. All this for a genre that wasn't especially popular before on consoles outside of GoldenEye.


Real Talk.

in other words Haters gonna hate.


Whether bungie can create the next big thing is a different question but I'm not even that big a fan of the first Halo and I get why Bungie is regarded on the level they are. People are waiting to see if they are going to create the next big thing.

[Eel O'Brian]

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)

[MyNameIsMethodis]

The fact of the matter is that without Halo 1 the Xbox would've never made it past year one and we would've never gotten that devil box known as the 360. Fuck you Bungie.

[Eel O'Brian]

devil box

do dorfs live inside the devil box

[Smooth Groove]

[Stoney Mason]

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)

I always had issues with the actual level design of the first Halo. But anybody who was mostly a console gamer at that time was definitely blown away by how well it controlled. It wasn't like this was the first fps on a console clearly but it was the first one that controlled so well that if felt right for the majority of people that game on consoles.

It also looked nice at the time which drew in a lot of graphic whore types but I think the controls were really the secret sauce that got that generation hooked and showed the way.

[MyNameIsMethodis]

devil box

do dorfs live inside the devil box

why would dorfs who commonly live in a mountain live in a game system? 

[AdmiralViscen]

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

[ch1nchilla]

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.

[Stoney Mason]

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.

[ch1nchilla]

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 

[Stoney Mason]

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 

Sorry but I'm the resident COD fanboy!

The thing is (and this isn't necessarily aimed at you) but I'm not so jaded that I can't distingush my personal feelings from why something generally hits big in the gaming market. I get why the masses love StarCraft or World of Warcraft even though I'm not a fan of either of those two titles personally. But I get it. 9 times out of 10 I get why the big games are the big games. This applies to Halo and COD also. The big games are the big games because they are either approachable in a way that most games aren't or they are novel in a way that most other games aren't. I thought the original Halo was a bit over-rated although incredibly important and still a good game. Like I said Halo 2 was the crack addiction for me back in the day. The one that truly hooked me and I played a shitload online. But Halo 3 I gave up on rather quickly and found dry for whatever reason. ODST is a rip off piece of shit imo. Reach I quite like though. So while I've been sort of up and down with the series on a personal level, I still get why its been as popular as its been.

EDIT: and apparently this isn't even related to bungie. So ignore or lock the thread please.

[Stoney Mason]

Battlefield ______

Hey I love Bad Company 2 but the series has been mixed on consoles imo.

You had Battlefield 2: Modern Combat back on the xbox which was meh. I thought the first Bad Company was a good idea with a lot of poor execution in it.

1943 and especially BC 2 have been good though. Which is kinda my point. Nobody knocks it out of the park every time. I would argue Bungie has been more consistent than most.

[Stoney Mason]

‘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.

http://uk.kotaku.com/5762663/is-destiny-the-next-game-from-the-creators-of-halo

[maxy]

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


FPS MMO,not surprising

it could be f2p

[Stoney Mason]

the mmo fps thing has always been the logical move for them I guess. Especially when you sign with Activision Blizzard.

Yeah there had better be some free to play option on it. As much as I like shooters I'm not going to spend a monthly
fee on them just as I would never pay to play an mmo like WoW on a regular basis. But then they also don't necessarily need me since tons of people do pay for mmo's.

[Phoenix Dark]

So this isn't the Titan project (alleged mmo-fps) Blizzard is working on, but a separate fps mmo?

[Cravis]

I wonder if they'll try to make it control differently or if it will just be Halo with a new name and different coat of paint?

[Stoney Mason]

So this isn't the Titan project (alleged mmo-fps) Blizzard is working on, but a separate fps mmo?

It's almost certainly (if true) a separate project. I think you will see a number of devs try to establish the mmo-fps as a workable genre especially since the traditional mmo market seems flooded and shooters are hot. I'm ignoring things like World War Online and planetside, apb, crimecraft, etc in relation to this argument for the moment. 

I kinda wonder though if the mentality of the people who play these two kind of games is different. Although I don't like rpg mmo's myself for the most part there was always a market there because of D&D for a sort of never ending experience in that regard.

I'm not sure shooters guys are craving that same sort of experience. Especially since the whole point of shooters is being on a level playing ground. The moment you feel somebody is better than you because they have access to better paid equipment or gear that you can't get for various reasons is the moment most shooter fans get turned off. In something like COD its different because everybody can grind to unlock that stuff. Bungie and Blizzard are smart guys so I'm sure they are aware of all that and more but I'm not sure how you build that compulsion loop without better gear and equipment like an RPG mmo. 

I think there is a probably a compelling way to make a massive shooter with an ongoing structure but honestly no matter how good it is, I don't think I want to pay monthly for it based on just a single game. (At least at $15 bucks a month) But maybe they will surprise me and it will be so compelling I feel the need to play it.

[Positive Touch]

i think if they designed a fps mmo that focused on questing with teams (sorta like l4d but in an open world) it would have the potential to be the game of my dreams.  i'm imagining a game divided between battle and no-combat zones, maybe if say you were fighting a war and had designated camps, or a city where structures like high-rises were where you could fight each other.

[Diunx]

So what do you do in a fps mmo? walk around shooting people?

[Cormacaroni]

I'd imagine it would work on the lines of Chromehounds, with a TON of customization and levelling and a very strong emphasis on squads and factions.

[pilonv1]

Planetside obviously

[Great Rumbler]

MMO, huh? Might as well sell your Bungie stock now.

[pilonv1]

Now? I'd be selling it 2 weeks after launch, once the mass hype and hysteria has died down.

[Bocsius]

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.

[Eel O'Brian]

they better have a backup game planned

[Bocsius]

they better have a backup game planned

Halo 4: Please Microsoft, Take Us Back

[Diunx]

HALO: W.M.A.H.M.( we made a huge mistake)

[Eel O'Brian]

i think that backup game might be called Call of Duty: Ringplanet

[Raban]

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.

Yeah...skipping total.

[Bocsius]

Apparently the weekly update from Bungie indicates that the MMO bit was a joke that apparently nobody got. I guess. I don't know. So either it is or is not confirmed. Either way, meh.

[chronovore]

I don't think I can, in good conscience, do anything that results in Activision getting my money on a monthly basis.

[Stoney Mason]

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.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-bungie-activision-contract-20120521,0,3463781.story