MCV @ GAMESCOM: ‘Players didn’t understand Destiny until they played the beta,’ says Bungie

Gamerscould not grasp what MMO FPS title Destiny was about prior to its beta.

That’s according to the title’s director of production, Jonty Barnes, who told MCV @ Gamescom that this was due to the sheer volumeof content – while players were familiar with individual aspects of the game, as
an overall product it was difficult to convey.

Bungie says the beta was a game changer for Destiny, which as a result of its popularity became the most pre-ordered new IP in history.

We didn’t realise, because we were living it, how difficult it was to talk about – how seamlessly you move between activities, how you collide and thendisrupt,” Barnes said. We kept on talking about the core game, and people just didn’t grasp it until they got their hands on it. Since the beta it has been easier to explain what the game is.”

Lead concept artist Jesse Van Dijk added: Destiny is built on the foundation of things we have learnt over time. There are certainly components ofthe game that players will be familiar with, but the broad formula is a certain something that is very new, and that has not been seen before in any kind of game.”

The beta launched on July 17th for PlayStation, before coming to Xbox platforms on the 23rd of the same month. Activision said that 4.6m people played the game.