Destiny requires online connection, even in single-player

Even if you're playing Destiny single-player, you will need an online connection. "To play Destiny, you need to be connected," Bungie's Pete Parsons succinctly noted.

52

Bungie's upcoming Destiny will feature a highly crafted narrative experience, one that you can experience as a traditional "campaign." However, even if you're playing the game single-player, you will need an online connection. "To play Destiny, you need to be connected," Bungie's Pete Parsons succinctly noted.

The online requirement will undoubtedly be a barrier of entry for those who don't have their consoles connected online, and crucially, for non-Gold members on Xbox 360. However, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg says that the game needs to be online because "that's the only way to realize the vision of the game. The vision of the game is a shared world first person shooter. In order to make the world shared, you need to be connected."

Although the game will require an always-on connection, Bungie promises that solo players will have a complete experience. "We want to be able to give you that strong narrative, you as a solo player. We want you to have that. If you want to do it by yourself, that's totally okay," Parsons said.

You will still see other players in your game, but you can choose not to interact with them. A key difference between Destiny and most MMOs is the scale, which allows you to take the lone wolf approach. "It's not about stuffing as many people into a space as possible," Parsons pointed out. "The amount of players you see is design-controlled." Destiny's unique approach to online connectivity is why we compared the game to Journey--among many other eclectic games.

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    February 17, 2013 1:00 PM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Destiny requires online connection, even in single-player.

    Even if you're playing Destiny single-player, you will need an online connection. "To play Destiny, you need to be connected," Bungie's Pete Parsons succinctly noted.

    • reply
      February 17, 2013 1:05 PM

      I smolder with generic rage.

      • reply
        February 18, 2013 7:09 AM

        I am still just a rat in a CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE

    • reply
      February 17, 2013 1:13 PM

      Cool connection, Diabro.

    • reply
      February 17, 2013 1:41 PM

      I'm still not sure what Destiny /is/. Is it like WoW or something where everyone is in some big overworld and can all see each other at once? Or is it a hubworld game like PSO/Global Agenda?

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 2:13 PM

        to me it sounds like dark souls where its sort of mmo but not really. and the always connected aspect is required for some nifty game features that we dont know about yet

        • reply
          February 17, 2013 7:15 PM

          It sounds more like Guild Wars 1: towns where people can meet and form groups then go out into instanced zones. But there's really not much out there except some high level talk and concept art.

    • reply
      February 17, 2013 1:50 PM

      [deleted]

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 1:53 PM

        Yeah but you can always play in offline mode if you want to in the Souls games -.-

    • reply
      February 17, 2013 1:51 PM

      Sounds like TOR.

    • reply
      February 17, 2013 1:54 PM

      So will that mean gold subscription required to even play the game?

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 2:18 PM

        That's what it says.

        • reply
          February 17, 2013 3:56 PM

          I wonder if they'll pack in a one month code then. Probably just a 48 hour trial most likely.

    • reply
      February 17, 2013 2:13 PM

      I bet there will be a crack made with in the first week to allow it with out been online.

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 2:16 PM

        unlikely considering its console only

        • reply
          February 17, 2013 2:25 PM

          You realize console games can and have been cracked, yes?

          • reply
            February 17, 2013 6:37 PM

            Cracked? Yes. Replace all online calls and data? Good luck with.

          • reply
            February 17, 2013 6:42 PM

            did you guys read this at all? seems like the game might be broken without the online component. not something simple that you could just crack.

            • reply
              February 24, 2013 3:37 AM

              I did, I was simply explaining how console games generally can be cracked. Also regarding the online stuff: it has happened before. Took a lot longer to get around, but they managed to do it.

        • reply
          February 18, 2013 2:41 AM

          I was thinking it was an error in the tags since i am sure it was listed as having a PC version as well oh well my bad.

    • reply
      February 17, 2013 3:03 PM

      BS DRM for single player?. I have enough good games, thank you very much.

      Next!.

    • reply
      February 17, 2013 3:44 PM

      I honestly don't care. What kind of loser doesn't have an internet connection nowadays anyways?


      mostly kidding

    • reply
      February 17, 2013 4:40 PM

      Worse: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/02/17/destiny-not-coming-to-pc-bungie-deny-reality/

      That quote is the 2nd dumbest thing I've read all day.

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 5:09 PM

        Yep, that's pretty stupid.

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 5:11 PM

        It's also a huge stretch for RPS to infer what they did from that statement.

        • reply
          February 17, 2013 9:48 PM

          Yeah, I'm not getting a "FUCK M+K!!!" vibe from that quote. More of a "Halo changed the face of FPSs."

          • reply
            February 17, 2013 9:55 PM

            ...without the need for a mouse and keyboard.

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 5:12 PM

        Derpp level infinity achieved,

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 5:32 PM

        Wow, it amazes me how out of touch with customers the game industry really is sometimes

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 5:36 PM

        That article takes that quote WAY out of context.

        • reply
          February 17, 2013 8:29 PM

          And the consolers and the publishers will look up at me and beg for help, and I will tell them "No."

        • reply
          February 18, 2013 1:26 AM

          This is best picture ever.

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 5:40 PM

        Wow, guess Destiny isn't my destiny..

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 5:44 PM

        [deleted]

        • reply
          February 17, 2013 6:26 PM

          After the first Halo PC port, I never really cared. Kinda like that first Borderlands PC port. COINCIDENCE?

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 5:51 PM

        It's amusing how many people are up in arms over this.

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 6:21 PM

        veiled attempt at PC interest for their future reference?

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 6:29 PM

        I has a sad

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 6:34 PM

        this is what you all sound like to me

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ohthkOzewdQ#t=19s

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 6:45 PM

        as a multiplatform gamer, all i can say is :P

        • reply
          February 17, 2013 7:02 PM

          as a multiplatform gamer, all i can say is FPS games play way better on PC

          • reply
            February 17, 2013 7:03 PM

            sure but so long as the playing field is even i don't really mind it too much

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 7:08 PM

        "Cause nobody wants to".......what the flying fuck?

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 7:31 PM

        Except Rainbow Six limited players to 2 weapons almost 3 years earlier, and regenerating health is STILL bullshit.

        • reply
          February 17, 2013 7:37 PM

          So, in list form:

          Two weapon system: Rainbow Six
          Automatic saves: Half-Life
          Regenerating health: cop-out shortcut to avoid placing health pickups and actually balancing the campaign enemy placement, weapon strength, armor pickups
          "Nobody wants to play shooters on a mouse and keyboard": Jason Jones shouldn't even think of setting foot into the BYOC sections of PAX East, QuakeCon, or PAX Prime, lest he be bashed upside the head with a WASD Cherry Blue and a SteelSeries Sensei.

          • reply
            February 17, 2013 7:42 PM

            Dude's starting to sound like a Pitchford.

          • reply
            February 17, 2013 8:09 PM

            Halo didn't even have regenerating health. It was regenerating shields. Health still relied on health packs.

            • reply
              February 17, 2013 8:32 PM

              I still think that was the best mix and was disappointed they removed that feature.

            • reply
              February 17, 2013 8:34 PM

              Halo 1 didn't, Halo 2, 3, and partly Reach had regenerating health in addition to shields.

              • reply
                February 18, 2013 4:34 AM

                Halo 2 and 3 didn't have health. Just shields.

            • reply
              February 17, 2013 9:08 PM

              Halo's system was basically Marathon's health system with a recharging overshield.

          • reply
            February 17, 2013 8:34 PM

            It helps if you know what you're talking about. Halo had health packs and non regenerating health, just a recharging shield. Even if it didn't, to claim it's avoid balancing the game when Halo is consistently one of the best balanced games across difficulty levels without just pumping stats is even more absurd. You also conveniently left out the impact of vehicles, multiplayer on a console, off hand grenades, good campaign co op, and probably a few others (I'd mention AI but few even try to match it)

            • reply
              February 17, 2013 8:55 PM

              other games did all that first, there were vehicles in mp games before halo, there was good co op campaigns before halo, there was multiplayer fps before halo, there was better AI in other games. I feel like because halo was the first really popular console fps (ignoring goldeneye64) that it has created this bullshit mythos about itself and all these apparently "new features" even though they were all done on PC games first years before.

              • reply
                February 17, 2013 9:16 PM

                I feel like because halo was the first really popular console fps (ignoring goldeneye64) that it has created this bullshit mythos about itself and all these apparently "new features" even though they were all done on PC games first years before

                I feel like this is what PC gamers who missed the boat say. I never owned a console prior to the original Xbox, hated Goldeneye for controlling like shit compared to PC shooters, etc. Halo did a lot of things extremely well and better in both parts and as a whole than a ton of other games.

                • reply
                  February 17, 2013 10:29 PM

                  Missed the boat? Its not like a lot of us didn't play Halo...I'll admit that its a significant game...but a lot of folks have this attitude that if you don't worship the thing you just don't get it and are completely wrong. That attitude wrt HL1 annoyed me as well. A game can be amazingly good and still overrated...and a game like Halo can have a significant impact and do a lot of important things while still not setting everybody's world on fire. I mean for me the Quake games had better DM and CTF...always have...always will...they were faster and more responsive and more what I was looking for. For the big scale vehicles game...Tribes 1 & 2 did that better IMHO...but again I'm not knocking Halo.

                  It was the first game that controlled adequately on consoles (Goldeneye came close if you used the Turok style control scheme or used two controllers at once (one in each hand))...but I always felt that it was "good enough" at best and given how many great FPS games there are on the PC I don't have to put up with "good enough". I've bought and played all the Halo games...each time giving them a ton of time to try and get into them...but I just never enjoyed them that much. I get that a lot of people enjoyed Halo and I give it credit for being a good game...its just a good game that I don't generally enjoy and I keep trying to appreciate. I'd add that I felt the same way about Counterstrike...lots of people liked it but I felt it was a step in the wrong direction from other games that I enjoyed more (like Quake and Tribes)...but I don't see it as a bad game...just a game that I didn't like.

                • reply
                  February 18, 2013 12:52 AM

                  how did i miss the boat when i was playing games with the features YOU listed but in pc games way earlier? Halo wasn't an amazing game to me (yeah i actually did play it on release) because i had played shooters like half life, quake, jedi knight, tribes, ww2 online etc. that had all done it before and IMO in better ways. It seems to me its the console gamers who picked up an xbox and a copy of Halo and blindly think it did everything first, when it actually did not.

                  And for the record i think time splitters was better than halo.

            • reply
              February 17, 2013 10:09 PM

              We left out things the Bungie dude did not mention as being innovated by Halo. Their 'convenient' absence was his fault.

            • reply
              February 17, 2013 10:36 PM

              Other games did some of those things...Tribes had vehicles, lots of games did multiplayer on console, Team Fortress did off hand grenades (as did a number of Quake mods as I remember...think other games did it too)...not saying it didn't do those things well...but that could be why he didn't mention them...not to mention the article in question didn't...and these posts seem to be dealing with the RPS article...not "how great is Halo". I don't get the whole "how dare you not list ALL the reasons Halo is great and have a big throbbing hard on for it like I do" thing.

              The article also mentioned recharging health...which makes me question if you know WTF you're talking about...I wouldn't take this tone with you if you hadn't taken a nasty tone in your response...but when the original article specifically mentions RECHARGING HEALTH it's fucking pertinent to the fucking conversation!!!

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 8:22 PM

        And what RPS had to say was pretty dumb too.

        "Perhaps he misspoke, perhaps he’s a braggart who thinks Halo changed the face of FPS while no one else noticed, perhaps he just meant the regenerating health thing, and not PC at all?"

        RPS hasn't always been this dumb right?

        • reply
          February 17, 2013 8:42 PM

          the RPS post is far worse than the Bungie quote

          • reply
            February 17, 2013 10:38 PM

            Hm. I'm going to have to disagree there. That Bungie quote is just balls out ridiculous.

            • reply
              February 17, 2013 10:50 PM

              Bungie is doing PR, of course they're going to use hyperbole with their past accomplishments. The RPS commentary on it is like standard PC vs console forum trash.

              • reply
                February 17, 2013 10:52 PM

                So is the Bungie statement, though.

                • reply
                  February 17, 2013 11:32 PM

                  I don't get why some developers aren't satisfied with just saying "sorry, not on PC", and take the extra step of talking trash about the platform. I mean, why burn your bridges like that? What business sense does it make to just gratuitously piss people off who want to be your customer? It makes no sense.

          • reply
            February 17, 2013 11:07 PM

            Can't we just agree they're both awful and move on.

      • DM7 legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
        reply
        February 17, 2013 8:27 PM

        I donno man, Planetside 2 is a fun fps on the PC, much more ambitious in scope than Destiny.

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 8:33 PM

        It's because of articles and responses like this that Jason Jones rarely comments publicly on his thoughts anymore and is also why the .plan updates from the id software of yore are gone. You can hate the changes Halo made to FPS games and many do, but the Halo way was a fun (and arguably necessary for consoles) alternative to the standard FPS method.

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 8:34 PM

        And now nobody plays shooters the way they used to play them before Halo ’cause nobody wants to.

        http://i.minus.com/iDA9k2VtG0CZ.gif

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 8:41 PM

        Eurogamer is saying PC is possible.

        http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-02-17-destiny-requires-an-internet-connection-to-work

        On the possibility of a PC version, (Bungie COO) Parsons said: "We would absolutely love to be on the PC. If you talk to the people upstairs, we play it on all platforms. So, stay tuned."

        Activision Publishing boss Eric Hirshberg added: "Until there are official announcements from the first parties obviously we can't comment on any platforms that might be forthcoming, but what we can say is we are building Destiny to be wherever gamers are." He later insisted Activision's approach is "platform agnostic".

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 8:56 PM

        Seems pretty damn stupid if they want to have the game live for "10 years" (according to Gerstmann).

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 9:02 PM

        ignorant fucking console bullshit

        halo is nothing but a blip on the radar, and bungiee got lucky with it.

        without Microsoft they were nothing

        marathon was a shitty FPS on the mac

        • reply
          February 17, 2013 9:03 PM

          destiny will become the next BRINK

        • reply
          February 17, 2013 9:59 PM

          Not that I agree with the quote, I think it's inaccurate, but Halo is hardly a "blip" on the radar.

          The Halo series has sold over 47 million units, not including Halo Wars (~2M). That's a very successful franchise, and that doesn't happen just because someone got lucky. That happens because Bungie created an entertainment product that had value. It's true, Microsoft provided the funding they needed, but they had the ability to make quality games, and it was a huge success for both Bungie and Microsoft. It would be more accurate to say that without Microsoft, they did not have the resources necessary.

          Marathon came out for the mac in 1994. Few games weren't shitty for the mac. But, it was Bungie who made some solid games for the platform. Before Microsoft stepped in, Halo was going to be for the Mac, not PC. It was quite the fiasco when Microsoft got involved and took that away, but it worked. Halo would have been nothing but a blip on the radar if that hadn't happened. I'm happy about that because I have enjoyed the Halo series quite a bit in all of its iterations.

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 11:26 PM

        Well that's pretty sad. This is the most disappointed I've been about a PC-snubbing game since Red Dead Redemption.

      • reply
        February 18, 2013 3:39 AM

        It's verging on direct trolling really.

      • reply
        February 18, 2013 5:54 AM

        [deleted]

        • reply
          February 18, 2013 10:53 AM

          That's ridiculous. Xbox never allowed for k+m. Of course he's talking about all fps players, pc players included.

      • reply
        February 18, 2013 10:51 AM

        What a pretentious cunt. Lots of gamers prefer playing fps on k+m but I guess pc gamers don't matter.

    • reply
      February 17, 2013 6:20 PM

      As a dedicated PC gamer, I just can't raise the initiative to care. Who is Bungie?

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 6:31 PM

        Myth 1 & 2? Also Marathon series, Oni, Halo.

        • reply
          February 17, 2013 6:32 PM

          [deleted]

        • reply
          February 17, 2013 6:36 PM

          Oni was fun for a one time through game I'll never play again. I could never get used to the camera controls in Myth.

          • reply
            February 17, 2013 7:40 PM

            And I didn't really know about Marathon until it went freely distributed in 2005. http://source.bungie.org

          • reply
            February 18, 2013 5:57 AM

            The levels were boring as hell though, like the raw design and layout looked as if a failed architecture student was shooting for real world stuff. Also, by the end it was ridiculously hard so you had to cheese it by trying to scavenge ammo for the one shot kill gun then get headshots, just like 40K: Fire Warrior (ha, nobody remembers THAT piece of shit).

            • reply
              February 18, 2013 6:12 AM

              It literally was designed by an architect IIRC.
              I love the game and have to disagree on the cheesing bit. I see it as legitimate gameplay. Also have to disagree with the guy saying it can't be played more than once as I have played it several times and intend to go back for more.

              • reply
                February 18, 2013 7:00 AM

                I believe you're right, and that's what made the levels so boring and utilitarian.

                Also, sorry but no dude. Ducking behind cover back and forth over and over, praying for ammo soon, and having to use the one overpowered weapon that could damage the guys at the end, because they would fuck you hard if you tried kung fu or any sustained fire weapons, was just bad design and balancing.

              • reply
                February 18, 2013 4:20 PM

                Where did I say "it can't be played again"? "I'll never play again" is COMPLETELY different.

        • DM7 legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
          reply
          February 17, 2013 8:28 PM

          Myth 1 and 2 were some great games. I loved the narrator stories between missions.

          • reply
            February 17, 2013 10:38 PM

            Went back and played them again, still good. He makes it sound so badass.

        • reply
          February 17, 2013 8:58 PM

          Only a desperate Mac user in the 90s could like Marathon.

        • reply
          February 17, 2013 9:18 PM

          How old are those games? Making PC games more than a decade ago doesn't make them relevant to PC gamers now.

          • reply
            February 17, 2013 9:32 PM

            Oni was released in late January 2001; Myth 2 was holiday 1998. Oni was in development prior to the Microsoft acquisition, so it would not be unfair to say that Bungie has not internally developed and released a PC game since before they were acquired by Microsoft.

      • reply
        February 17, 2013 9:18 PM

        not that dedicated apparently

      • reply
        February 18, 2013 3:33 AM

        Maker of the worlds most over rated FPS of all time.

        • reply
          February 18, 2013 5:27 AM

          That's a stretch. I turned my nose in the air when I heard about Halo 1. Dude bragging to me who had never even played on the PC! These idiots don't know anything! It was fucking fun and as fresh as HL was on release.

          • reply
            February 18, 2013 1:11 PM

            I didn't say Halo is bad, I said it's over rated, incredibly so.

      • reply
        February 18, 2013 6:43 AM

        TLDR they are a company that took 12 years to come up with one new idea for a game.

    • reply
      February 17, 2013 6:39 PM

      actually, that sounds kind of interesting. seemingly like demon's souls maybe but with the potential to be fun for all?

    • Ziz legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      February 17, 2013 6:55 PM

      What next? Shacknews to always require internet connection?

    • reply
      February 17, 2013 9:20 PM

      Can't muster the energy to care until there's more info and actual gameplay shown.

    • reply
      February 17, 2013 11:25 PM

      Hey there console gamers, aren't you glad that a bunch of bullshit hasn't penetrated your platform yet? Like key codes and online-all-the-time drm? Oh, right. Well, at least you have to buy your games from the store (well, 360 gamers at least) and don't have the convenience of Steam. But thanks for beta testing Brutal Legend for us!

    • reply
      February 17, 2013 11:25 PM

      They are really trying to build the hype train with this one. I'm predicting a Diakatana-esque failure.

    • reply
      February 18, 2013 3:23 AM

      So I got blocked by Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Twitter account for this tweet: https://twitter.com/Dontdrop/status/303359800799006720

      Was it really that bad? I don't think I'm so far off the mark calling their statement stupid. I guess saying I don't read them anymore (or how I phrased that) is wrong?

      • reply
        February 18, 2013 4:38 AM

        RPS' incendiary reporting is stupid but I can understand them blocking your tweet. "I'm not reading any more" is the equivalent of "preorder canceled" - it would have be sufficient just to scold them for lazy journalism.

        • reply
          February 18, 2013 7:23 AM

          I agree, but that's been my honest experience with them.

      • reply
        February 18, 2013 5:15 AM

        I don't see how what they said was stupid. Bungie's statement was stupid. Really god damn stupid and incredibly arrogant.

        • reply
          February 18, 2013 5:28 AM

          The RPS writer completely missed the point of the quote and dragged the omg pc games argument in from nowhere; same thing everyone in this thread is doing. That's retarded, the Bungie quote is not. Reading comprehension is dead.

          • reply
            February 18, 2013 6:08 AM

            But even so it is stupid to say that eg no one wants to play a shooter where you get more than two guns. That's just ridiculous.

    • reply
      February 18, 2013 4:00 AM

      Lame. Thankfully I have zero interest in any of the cruft they put out.

    • reply
      February 18, 2013 5:51 AM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      February 18, 2013 1:08 PM

      This was the one feature I was looking for. I am going to pre-order ASAP as possible.

Hello, Meet Lola