Developer says it will be prepared for "anxious mobs of players," teases gamers can play as aliens in upcoming shooter.
In the wake of SimCity's troubled launch this month, Bungie has said it is not worried about an influx of users crippling Destiny's servers at release.
"This isn't our first rodeo," the developer said as part of its latest Mail Sack. "Bungie is no stranger to anxious mobs of players who rush home after a midnight launch and put our best-laid plans to the test."
Bungie's claim is not without merit, as the developer has overseen the generally smooth launches of a number of high-profile and multiplayer-centric Halo titles. In the case of Destiny, however, the game is exclusively an always-online experience.
Another community question posed to Bungie was whether or not Destiny would allow gamers to play as aliens. The developer was coy with its response, teasing that this may be possible.
"Not all of the aliens in Destiny are evil, just like not all humans are good," Bungie said. "We've barely scratched the surface on the character and customization options you’ll have access to in Destiny, but we’re not going to dig in any deeper today."
Destiny is expected to launch in 2014, with confirmed platforms thus far including Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4. Bungie's own preorder page suggests the game is also coming to Wii U, PC, PlayStation Vita, and the Xbox 720.
For more on Destiny, check out GameSpot's previous coverage .
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
A lot of people seem to speak before thinking and i'm now guilty of this! This game needs to be online for the game to evolve into Bungies vision. It's not a single player game. Go read this article. It explains it perfectly. The always on-line isn't for DRM at all. It's the only way they can create a "Live" environement by the looks of it.
They could always try something crazy like, oh, I don't know...load testing maybe. It's not complicated to script test clients to simulate realistic server loads. I'm looking forward to the launch of Destiny. Not a fan of always online, but I think in the case of Destiny, it may actually make sense (unlike SimCity).
1 Like I wasn't aware this was an "always online to play" game. I'm not being forced into that crap. Sorry Blizzard, i mean Bungie. Guess i won't be paying/playing your next title!
You can't really say for certainty "we will not experience server issues", because of the unforeseen circumstances. But you'd think the bigger the company, the more servers they have running. But it really could happen to anyone.
2 Like Why do I get the feeling that they jinxed themselves already.It could be Diablo 3 all over again except with consoles and controllers.
I know that most people hate intrusive DRM, myself included, but if a game requires it to be online to be played such as Destiny (if you take Bungie's word and considering there track record I do) than why get mad over it? If the only options possible are have it be always online or have it be unable to be made I'll take the always online.
BUT, if they are bullshitting and it is true that the game doesn't need online for the majority of it to function than I will be right behind everyone in saying that it is bullshit and I won't buy the game. I just don't see Bungie as being that deceitful of a company, they're one of the few good ones we have left.
@vault-boy obviously the game dosent "need" to be online only to run, however, it will need to sync data to the servers on a regualr basis and obviously when your multiplayering. also it will likely (or mabe im just hopeing) not drop your play session just cause of a momentary internet failure. i know all this syncing stuf is realy complex so theres lots of room for things to go wrong but if its done right things run smoothly and you dont even notice.
1 Like Bad timing. Saying that your game is going to be Always online right after the terrible launch of SimCity?
1 Like This is so unfortunate for me. I am an avid gamer, but as of late I have had to miss out on some games that I was really looking forward too. I had to skip Diablo 3 and will now miss Destiny. At best I have internet sometimes where I live and an always online game is just not possible for me. I guess bungie and other large game studios only care about people in large cities; i remember when studios produced games for people first.
2 Like It wasn't Blizzard's "first rodeo" either, but look what happened to diablo 3.
I know Bungie and I know they have the know-how to pull this off, but statements like "this isn't our first rodeo" and "Not all of the aliens in Destiny are evil, just like not all humans are good," look like they're made for retards or something. They shoud have a little more respect for their fanbase.
The fact that I live on campus and have internet that is either bad or dead doesn't fix their issue. I'll still be unable to play the game. I guess they don't want my money.
1 Like @Sefrix What campus are you on? It's 2013! Every gadget seems to be able to connect to the internet at least somewhat reliably.
It's basically going to be an MMO, and MMOs aren't for those who lack reliable internet connections. That's always remained true.
@experience_fade Oklahoma Christian. The connection is fine and I can always use Ethernet but it's not a signal strength problem. Typically in the evenings thousands of the students are busy watching Youtube or God knows what and it eats up the bandwidth. I can have a perfect connect and still be really slow because it's all being used up.
You are very true that an MMO is not built for people with bad internet but they specifically claim this is not an MMO. Also do you think it's really not possible to have a single player portion. Diablo 3 could have. SimCity could have. It's a voluntary and unnecessary choice that prevents me from enjoying the game so I'm bummed about it. I'm sure you can understand that.
1 Like I'm glad EA is getting so much shit over the Sim City deal. Why? Not because I hate EA. Okay, so maybe I do a little bit. But the real reason is that it is sending a message to all other companies to not follow in their footsteps, which gives us gamers smooth launches.
6 Like "We've barely scratched the surface on the character and customization options you?ll have access to in Destiny, "= We've barely scratched the surface of all the microtransactions that plague your every step.
@Sorciere_basic Heh, lets hope Bungie has more class than that. They don't need to resort to nickel and diming, I would hope.
3 Like lol at the hypocrisy of gamers, EA simcity being always-online **** u EA!, Bungie Destiny being always online, that's cool
3 Like @Gamesarefunn I think your a little confused there bud. Simcity can be played singleplayer but EA requires it to be online for DRM. The way it looks with Destiny is that it will be an always multiplayer experience and as such will require you to always be online. Its the same with an MMO, it just doesn't work offline.
6 Like @Gamesarefunn It's more of a "SimCity has always been a singleplayer game, why force the multiplayer?! f*** you!!!" and "Hmm, new IP, can be anything...".
@Daemoroth @Gamesarefunn There is no MP in Simcity!!!!!
Trading with another person is not MP, you can do that with yourself!!
@Sam_021 @Daemoroth @Gamesarefunn Yeah yeah, technicality... :P I mean, come on, even with other players it's not "active" MP, all it is is syncing worker/resource stats between cities in a region every so often.
Not sure if i'm getting destiny on 360, ps3, or ps4. i have to wait and see what the special playstation content was and if the ps4 is around $400 for my budget.
1 Like @CaptainGamespot They need to make this for the PC, we would eat that game up from the looks of it.
Lovin the thumbnail: *stares at his robot ball* "5 million unique simultaneous logons? Meh, im not worried."
XD
@Double-Ego @jameson425 So dust 514 and Eve online are not An MMO style universe with RPG aspects? I don't know about all that... sounds fishy to me
2 Like @Double-Ego @jameson425 My favorite part is how hed play the exact same thing on a PC, as if thered be some kind of difference suddenly.
@brxricano @Double-Ego @jameson425 Because I play MMO's huh? Never have and Never will I expected more from Bungie. Nowadays these projects seem like subscription based money pits then a game I would be interested in, but hey your entitled to your opinion even if it doesn't make a lot of sense to me...
1 Like @Uberdruck Activision Blizzard is the producer not the dev they have nothing to do with the game itself they just bank roll it
1 Like @Uberdruck well if blizzard is anyway involved in this project, then I start to worry. A lot.
I'm following this game with a lot of curiosity. like @m4a5 said, I hope that it will have an offline mode too.
1 Like @Thumbler76 Hah, sorry. This is another generic MMO with no offline mode that will base its revenue on microtransactions (they just don't want to drop that bomb yet so they dodge the question). One for the peasants only.
@MoronGotMyName @Thumbler76 But it's good to see you're not choosing sides when almost no information has been released...
Hmmm... definitely enjoying what I hear about Destiny, provided it does indeed have an offline mode (like I remember reading).
The interesting thing about this game is that it may be one of the only multiplayer shooters to actually run across both old and new console generations while also including handhelds and PC. I wonder if the servers for each will communicate with each other it would be necessary to justify the cost but doubtful nonetheless - mouse and keyboard FTW! Worth seeing how this aspect develops.
New universe is first-person shooter for Xbox 360 and PS3 with elements of open-world sandbox and persistent world; will not require subscription.
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