How Activision is influencing Bungie's Destiny

"From the developers of Halo and the publisher of Call of Duty." What does Activision bring to Destiny?

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"From the developers of Halo and the publisher of Call of Duty."

That's a tagline you're going to see a lot of in the coming months, as Activision begins revving up the marketing machine for Bungie's next game, Destiny. But what does it mean to be from "the publisher of Call of Duty?" Does that really affect the game in any way? According to both parties, the answer is yes.

"We've always believed in a strong partnership with our publisher," Bungie's Pete Parsons said, reminding the audience of their strong collaboration with Microsoft on the Halo franchise. "I'd say the relationship we have with Activision is that of a strong team. There are members of the group that are here that we wanted here. They come to visit, we have regular meetings, and there are people here that are here every day. They're part of the Bungie team. They're Activision employees, but they're actively involved with the Destiny project."

Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg echoed Bungie's sentiments, saying that they're bringing much more to the table than just marketing muscle. In fact, he believes that the company's experience with Call of Duty will ultimately help Destiny. "This vision is new. And it takes innovation and technological prowess on both sides," Hirshberg said. "Activision currently runs the biggest back-end for multiplayer games."

"We have experience with cross-platform game development," he pointed out. Destiny is coming to Xbox 360 and PS3--a first for a studio that was once owned by Microsoft. "So there's been a lot of places where technologically we have helped Bungie realize the vision of the game that's been mutually beneficial."

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

From The Chatty
  • reply
    February 17, 2013 3:00 PM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, How Activision is influencing Bungie's Destiny.

    "From the developers of Halo and the publisher of Call of Duty." What does Activision bring to Destiny?

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      February 17, 2013 3:36 PM

      By preventing a PC version

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        February 17, 2013 3:59 PM

        I'm betting now it will hit PC along with next gen. 10 year plan for console? No chance.

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          February 17, 2013 4:09 PM

          Well so far they have said it just ps3, 360, and "next gen consoles"

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        February 17, 2013 4:11 PM

        From the sounds of things Bungie doesn't want to make a PC version.

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      February 17, 2013 4:08 PM

      Activision brings the gift of infinite dlc's.

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      February 17, 2013 4:11 PM

      [deleted]

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      February 17, 2013 5:40 PM

      "Activision currently runs the biggest back-end for multiplayer games."

      Is that counting Blizzard's Battle.Net infrastructure, or does it only cover what falls under Activision Publishing?

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      February 17, 2013 5:59 PM

      they would be idiots to skip a pc version. unless they think they can make an mmo for consoles that did what halo did for fps on consoles, which I don't think they understand why mmos work on pcs and fail on consoles

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        February 17, 2013 6:03 PM

        MMORPGs do badly on consoles because of control problems. This is an MMOFPS.

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          February 17, 2013 6:08 PM

          did they ever try to port planetside 1 or 2 to the consoles?

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            February 17, 2013 9:09 PM

            PS1 no. PS2 is rumored to maybe be coming to PS4.

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            February 17, 2013 9:23 PM

            Dust 514 is console exclusive so we'll see how it works out.

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          February 17, 2013 6:34 PM

          still not a reason not to do a pc version

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      February 17, 2013 6:03 PM

      What does Activision bring to Destiny?

      Yearly release cadence of new games that are strikingly similar to each previous one. Milk milk milk milk

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        February 17, 2013 7:04 PM

        Funding.

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          February 17, 2013 9:16 PM

          Also note that Activision announced the Bungie partnership shortly after EA announced the partnership with Respawn Entertainment, the studio formed by Jason West, Vince Zampella, and numerous other ex-Infinity Ward staffers.

          http://www.shacknews.com/article/63252/sacked-call-of-duty-makers
          http://www.shacknews.com/article/63547/halo-developer-bungie-partners-with

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            February 17, 2013 9:18 PM

            And yes, the Activision-Bungie partnership was nine months in the making, but I have to wonder if the timeline of the announcement was sped up in reaction to Respawn forming so quickly.

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              February 17, 2013 10:29 PM

              I dunno but the simplest answer is that Activision brings funding to Bungie. They also probably handle the marketing which they seem to be pretty good at considering previous Activision efforts. So that saves Bungie headache of that. They also can negotiate on Bungie's behalf I assume. Why is this not an exclusive MS title? Is that because of Activision? I don't know. But perhaps if Bungie wanted to change an agreement they had with MS Activision can help them.

              But again the simplest answer really is Activision brings funding.

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        February 17, 2013 8:54 PM

        So there's been a lot of places where technologically we have helped Bungie realize the vision of the game that's been mutually beneficial." = Heavily Modified Quake 3 Engine again!

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      February 17, 2013 6:45 PM

      Is there a video on youtube for Destiny? All I see are videos of nerds talking about Destiny.

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