melmer

Destiny

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That's what I find worrying about it. That's four mainline Destiny games plus four "Comet" games/expansions in eight years. They'll either have to do some serious B-teaming like they did between Reach and ODST(which worked out okay in the end), or they'll have another dev team work on the off-year "Comet" stuff like IW/Treyarch and CoD.

But this is all just a bunch of ~wild speculation~ on my part, and I don't know what their current development environment is like.

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I may be wrong about this, but I think the deal with Activision is just for this one franchise and Bungie still owns the IP.  Activision has the exclusive rights to publish Destiny and any related games for 10 years, but I don't think that means Bungie can't do other things as well.  Plus I don't think Activision can force them to churn out a new one every year, nor can they outsource it to another company since Bungie owns the IP.

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I may be wrong about this, but I think the deal with Activision is just for this one franchise and Bungie still owns the IP. Activision has the exclusive rights to publish Destiny and any related games for 10 years, but I don't think that means Bungie can't do other things as well. Plus I don't think Activision can force them to churn out a new one every year, nor can they outsource it to another company since Bungie owns the IP.

From here:

EIGHT GAMES, ONE PER YEAR

The first Destiny game will launch 2013, with the next three games projected to arrive 2015, 2017 and 2019. The four Comet expansions are scheduled to launch in Fall of 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020.

CONTRACT LENGTH

The partnership is expected to naturally conclude 2020, but only if Bungie develops four Destiny games and four Comet expansions. The studio will need to support the game online for three years after the development deal ends.

2021

Bungie is generally banned from developing action shooters other than Destiny until 2018 (after the release of Comet 3), regardless of other stipulations. After then it would have to wait another three years to be able to publish such a game, but in any event must give Activision first rights to negotiate a publishing deal.

THIRD PARTIES

Activision's in-house studios can develop conversions of the projects providing Bungie agrees with the terms.

This is what I was going off of, there might be some newer terms that haven't, and probably won't, come to light.

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Interesting.  I guess they are required to make a bunch of Destiny games, but it still doesn't mean they can't do other things.  They just have to give Activision the first chance at a new deal.  And it also seems like Bungie has enough control to do interesting things with the property in the next few games if they want.  Perhaps they could try a different genre with each game (kind of like Halo Wars even though Bungie didn't make that).  But I do share your concerns that it could turn out terrible too.

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Jesus.. they've already planned for this to be an 8 game series?! *barf*

By the end the sphere will have opened to reveal itself full of burning human skull people for no reason. Spoilers!

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Jesus.. they've already planned for this to be an 8 game series?! *barf*

 

Yeah, I didn't want to be the first one to say so, but the text of that contract makes me feel so incredibly sad and bored. Oh boy, nearly a decade of sequels planned out!

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Four games and four expansion packs, not eight full releases.

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Yeah, I didn't want to be the first one to say so, but the text of that contract makes me feel so incredibly sad and bored. Oh boy, nearly a decade of sequels planned out!

 

It doesn't sound to exiting. But in fairness, that kind of long-term planning is probably what keeps some developers in business as opposed to others who run with the hand-in-mouth approach.

Also, a developer concentrating on one genre sounds fine as long as other developers concentrate on other genres. I don't think Telltale doing a FPS would be particularly great for example.

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Sure, I don't expect Bungie to ever make anything but shooters, and it's not the number of games (or expansions, whatever), it's just the relentless planning for this to be a guaranteed success mega-hit series that makes me just the tiniest depressed.

 

It's the same feeling when movie studios started announcing things in trilogies (and soon after, the same from game studios)  Now it's an 8 year franchise, from the get-go.

 

How about we wait and see if the first one's any good?  Can Activision cancel their 8-game order if the game's aren't wildly successful?

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Yeah, I know what you mean. This more or less industrial production to specification of games does not appeal to me either. It's just that it seems to be...let's call it a necessary evil if you want to do something this large a scale.

 

The Bioshock Infinite team in the other thread is already huge. I don't even want to know how many people and ressources are needed for this sort of project. It's probably so expensive that they calculate to make a loss on the first game -basically as a sort of investment to grow the player base- only to turn a profit with the sequels and expansions. If they would do what you suggest and only plan on a game by game basis, I don't think they would ever even make the first game to begin with because they would project a loss and cancel the thing before it even starts.

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I don't mean to speak for BigJKO, but in my case, it's more just that I find the business of media franchises to be a very ugly thing. It's not enough simply to make a string of good FPS games or sci-fi movies or fantasy novels or whatever, they all have to be interlinked so the audience can be compounded with each new sequel until they're making WoW or CoD4 bucks. Because that's always the goal, in the end.

 

When a product's success isn't really measured by itself, but by the future successes it allows, I start to feel weary of my role as a consumer and fan, whether potential or actual. And yeah, that's business, but I don't have to like it, especially when it's as naked as in the Activision contract.

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Fair enough, and I don't mean to imply that you or BigJKO should like these sorts of projects. As I wrote, I'm not interested in that sort of thing myself. It's just that there seem to be millions of people who really do like megaprojects like Destiny and I'm generally happy for them. Especially  since it doesn't seem to interfere with me getting what I like from somewhere else. I even think that the fantastic rise of the indie scene in recent years is to some extent a result of AAA games getting evermore bloated for precisely these financial necessities dictating game design.

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Sure, I don't expect Bungie to ever make anything but shooters,

 

Ever make anything but shooters again. They used to make Myth, one of my favourite RTS games

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It's just that there seem to be millions of people who really do like megaprojects like Destiny and I'm generally happy for them. Especially  since it doesn't seem to interfere with me getting what I like from somewhere else.

 

Absolutely! I don't want to sound like I'm doing the reverse "Not-games are ruining this industry. Dark Age of PC Gaming!"  It was just a quick gut reaction to the 8 game franchise plan from Activision. It probably makes financial sense. Although, I'm afraid that if this isn't the huge success everyone seems to be hoping it will be, a lot of people will lose jobs (as has already happened a lot of places where people presumably planned for franchise also?) But like you say, that would be also true for a one-off huge game.

 

Ever make anything but shooters again. They used to make Myth, one of my favourite RTS games

Oh right! Ever make anything but shooters again. It's like Blizzard almost feel locked into their three franchises and their gameplay staples, and you forget they used to make Lost Vikings, Rock n' Roll Racing and Blackmore or whatever that was called.

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The biggest problem from where I'm standing is not that I dislike 8-game series commitments (though I definitely do think it's complete and utter GROSS), but rather that I dislike seeing a clearly talented developer stuck doing the same thing for a large period of time. I prefer to see developers expand and try new things. And I know Bungie is a Good Developer. Mrrrh.

 

Of course, that said, a PC version seems unlikely, so it's not like I'd ever play it, even though I'm really interested in the few details we do know so far.

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Would that Bungie had gone full Molynuex, or even 10% Molyneux. With their massive budget and ultimate freedom they've decided to just make Halo for 10 years.

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destiny.jpg

Johnathon Blow goes full Molyneux, and we still like his games. Bungie just went there on what seems like Halo/Borderlands. Maybe that'll be a new industry term for a style of marketing "Full Molyneux".

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Oooooo nice cg trailer, Star Wars hover bikes on the moon shazam shazam

a9fs7x.gif

http://www.allgamesbeta.com/2013/05/destiny-law-of-jungle-live-actioncg.html

At Bungie, we’re all hard at work gearing up for the big show in June, but we didn’t want to leave you empty-handed heading into E3. To whet your appetite for Destiny’s gameplay reveal on June 10th, we’re releasing a CG/live action trailer that features three Guardians in action. This spot, titled “Law of the Jungle,” was created in collaboration with director Jon Favreau, actor Giancarlo Esposito, and visual effects house Digital Domain.

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CG trailer looks pretty hype there's no doubt of that.  Really looking forward to see more at E3.

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Man[, if they could give me something like Defiance but with Halo mechanics and a little bit of Borderlands then I would be very happy indeed.

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