Destiny Fan Art by TDSpiral

Found at DBO, this is some awesome fan art of Destiny by TDSpiral. I think it's a Guardian taking on one of the Fallen.

Marty O'Donnell has been fired from Bungie

If you ever played any of the Halo games  right up to Reach you will have listened to the wonderful music of Marty O'Donnell. He's one of the pillars (among many) who built Halo into a massive game franchise and in doing so helped put Bungie on the map.

And now just prior to the release of Destiny, Bungie's board fired him. Here's the tweet of his announcement:

I'm saddened to say that Bungie's board of directors terminated me without cause on April 11, 2014.
— Marty O'Donnell (@MartyTheElder) April 16, 2014

We don't know the full details but scuttlebutt across the net suggests a dispute with the board over pay.

Bungie has posted on their site:

"For more than a decade, Marty O'Donnell filled our worlds with unforgettable sounds and soundtracks, and left an indelible mark on our fans. Today, as friends, we say goodbye. We know that wherever his journey takes him, he will always have a bright and hopeful future.

We wish him luck in all his future endeavors."

Which is a mere kiss off. 

One can imagine Bungie's legion of fans will be pretty unimpressed with this decision.

One can also guess that Micheal Salvatori will pick up the reins as he has been O'Donnell's counterpart for many years now. 

Bungie reveals three classes of The Fallen. Wanna have a look?

Bungie have released some sweet details about some of the enemies the heroes of Destiny must defeat if they  can truly consider themselves heros: three classes of the Fallen. 

Dreg

THE FALLEN CLASS: DREG

These relentless thieves seem driven by desperation and rage. They are crafty, but they usually give up their cover with their clattering and hissing. Most seem outfitted with some kind of shock dagger and pistol, and as far as we can gather, they seem to only have two arms, while other Fallen have four.

A Vandal from Destiny

THE FALLEN CLASS: VANDAL

The truths about the Fallen chain-of-command are still making themselves known, but Vandals appear to hold a higher ranking than the Dregs, and deadlier weapons, too. They often have long range capability, but, lucky for us, their weapons take time to charge.

Oh Captain, my Captain

THE FALLEN CLASS: CAPTAIN

Fallen run in packs, led by an individual Captain. There is no denying a Captain's might; they are the fiercest of the Fallen. There is this sense of tattered nobility to them. You can see it in the way they carry themselves. They think they're better than us. They believe that Earth belongs to them.

Jason Jones sensationally quits Bungie.

In a move that will wreak havoc at Bungie, founder Jason Jones has announced he has quit Bungie and will no longer be working on any projects, including the forth coming Destiny, a game he has been credited as being the creative force behind.

Jones said in a very terse press statement:

"My time with Bungie has come to an end. As I look back on my career, I've made some good games but at this stage of my life I've had a gutsful of being the chief Overlord at Bungie, and I need to find some new air to breathe. Farewell, and see you beyond the stars"

The internet has been rife with skuttlebut this morning with some Bungie forums suggesting Jones had cracked under the pressure of making Destiny, a game which possibly had the highest expectations for any game in recent history.

Some telling details have emerged on twitter about this issue. Marty O'Donnell, a long time Bungie stalwart tweeted "Sorry I stole your lunch Jason" while Frank O'Connor from rival studio, 343 Industries tweeted, "good luck with your re-invention of Tetris"

No other Bungie employees have made any public comment at this stage.

Destiny is expected to be released on 1 April 2014.

For clarity, this was an April Fool's joke. Joe Staten leaving was not.

Another Destiny tease found in ODST

Bungie teased that Destiny was coming as far back as the Halo 3 spin off, ODST. Another teaser was found in that game, note the triangle 'Asklon' logo was the same in the first Easter egg. 

The reference to Infinity probably has Halo fans all up in arms regards the ship that features in Halo 4 but it's probably a reference to going beyond the stars (Bungie didn't make Halo 4 anyway...)

Destiny's conceptual artwork released by Bungie

The Vex - time travelling robots

Destiny Conceptual artwork by Bungie

New game Destiny has been revealed to the world and Bungie took a note from 343 Industries’ playbook and did the reveal with a set of concept artwork (albeit intermingled within a Vidoc of full of explanation).

Here’s some of the art that Bungie designers have done on The Fallen (Cabal), settings, cities and the Traveller, who’s true identity while probably be revealed in game 3…..

The Traveller

Mars' Exclusion Zone is controlled by the Cabal

You might recall this as the first image that leaked

The Black Garden. Which looks green.

The Mouth of Hell

Titan, Hunter, and Warlock classes in action.

Go Speed Racer, Go!

Bungie reveals Destiny to a horde of waiting fans

Dark Patrol

Bungie have finally revealed their new cross platform game. We haven't had a drink of Bungie goodness since the brilliant Halo: Reach game was released three years ago (it seems so long ago!).

Now, after months of speculation about the title, a massive hint hidden in plain sight in Halo 3: ODST and long bouts of silence, Bungie have officially revealed Destiny as their new game.

Check out this vidoc, Pathways out of Darkness:



Game Informer describes Destiny:

"Destiny takes place on the planet Earth, but well into the future when a mysterious weapon destroyed most of the planet and its inhabitants at the end of humanity’s Golden Age. One city remains, however, surviving thanks to the intervention of The Traveler. The Traveler is a gigantic moon shaped ship that looms over the Earth’s last surviving city. No one knows what The Traveler is, or where it came from, but it saved humanity by making sure a small population survived.

Guardians will be fully customised for Destiny

Players take on the roles of The Guardians, the protectors of the city who receive power from the Traveler. Each player creates his or her own guardian and can customize everything about them, including their appearance, class, weapons, and ship. Bungie didn’t divulge the differentiations between each class, but it spoke of hunters, titans, and warlocks. As a protector of the city, you live in a persistent and changing world, venturing into the Earth’s ruins on missions to explore and collect loot. You can even venture outside of Earth to visit the other planets of our solar system like Venus and Mars. Ambiguous powers emanate from The Traveler, empowering Earth’s Guardians with a magical force."

A first person shooter (and praise the Prophets it's not an MMO), it's like nothing that has ever been before. Destiny's concept is simply amazing in that it is an attempt to bring in a new era of co-operative game play:

"Every player is on his or her own adventure, but paths will cross. Bungie didn’t show how this process works firsthand, but the closest comparison seems to be the innovative multiplayer in 2012’s Journey. Bungie described an elaborate scenario where two guardians meet in the city and decide to head to a location on Mars called the Dust Palace in order to hopefully find worthwhile loot. The two jump in a space ship and head toward the planet, passing by The Traveler as they head to Mars. Once there, they encounter one of many enemy types called the Cabal. The two hold out as best they can against these powerful enemies, when a player who was also on a trip to Mars joins their fray. As Bungie describes it, this new Guardian’s appearance is a product of matchmaking that happens in the background with no intervention from the player." Source: Game Informer

It will take a lot to top the Halo series (only cross platform war games with serious advertising budgets such as Call of Duty / Modern Warfare beat it sales wise) and people will be looking to Bungie to do just that.  Destiny is however going to be a cross platform game (Xbox and Play Station) so they have a real chance to top it, at the least sales wise.

So while the ideas behind Destiny sound epic, the realization of it will be in the game's execution, and indeed the winning over of Bungie's long time fans, and of course bringing in a few new ones as well.

It will also be interesting where the classic Halo fan now goes (and stays). Will they stay with the Halo series after the success of Halo 4 or will they be tempted to the Dark Side by Bungie's new wares? I imagine the guys at HBO will be torn (well actually not, they already have destiny.bungie.org all prepared).  I for one will be dipping my toes in both pools as I really enjoyed Halo 4 and am keen to see where 343 takes the game.

So dear Bungie  fan, what do you think of Bungie's announcement?

Bungie sends some love to a little boy

Bungie get Halo. They get community. They get the fans and they get that fans sometimes need a little love beyond making great video games. Enter Bungie Foundation, a charity they set up to "to reduce distress and suffering of children." Here's a cool thing the Foundation was recently able to do.

Redditor fiscal_ posted trying to get some help with getting in touch with Bungie Foundation to arrange some Halo cheer for his Halo loving son who had just a massive liver replacement operation. One can only imagine the toll that takes on a young fellow. Some people talked to other people and the BF was able to come to the party and sent around Christine to deliver a card signed by some of the Bungie team, some swag and a spartan helmet.

Here's Fiscal_'s thanks on Reddit, and some pictures of him and his son, enjoying trying out Carter's Spartan helmet.

Nice work Dad and Bungie.

I couldn't help but notice what Christine was wearing - a Destiny shirt:

Bungie release Destiny screen shot after a leak

Woah! Finally an official thing from Bungie on their new game, Destiny.

Following a massive leak of images and details to IGN gaming site, Bungie responded with an official release of this screen shot stating:

"Go ahead. Take a peek. It’s alright. We weren't quite ready, but we will be soon, and we can’t wait to finally show you what we've really been up to.
Stick around, we haven’t even started yet."

The screenshot shows an awesomely curved tank / battle gun of some kind, foot soldiers bearing arms and a landscape setting that appears to be er... snowbound.

Beta testing has started for Destiny

Sundalius asked Bungie a question about Destiny which they responded to in the mail sack:

Has Bungie started reaching out for Beta Testers already?

We most certainly have! Our User Research team has very specific curiosities in mind when they tap a Beta Tester on the shoulder. The mazes that they build into their Laboratorium are meticulously customized for the people they choose to run through them. If you have yet to be selected, sit tight – and make sure that the email address attached to your profile is one that you still check. Your time may yet come.

Makes sense if Chris Butcher is doing take home tests.

Paul McCartney has a date with Destiny?

Does Paul McCartney has a date with Destiny? Is he winging it?

It's definitely not a coincidence that on Bungie Day, Paul McCartney has tweeted a picture of himself and and Bungie's own grizzled ancient, Marty O'Donnell. It would appear that the two are involved in some kind of musical collaboration. Is it for Destiny?

Here's Macca's tweet:

Here's Marty's tweet:

So what does it mean folks? Is The Fireman going to be a part of Bungie's Destiny series of games? Is this for a different project? How much are Bungie paying McCartney for his musical services and has he ever clocked a Halo game on Legendary mode? What's the #Tru7h ?

Destiny news found in court documentation !!

According to the LA Times newspaper, Bungie (the makers of Halo, if you've been living under a rock) is currently developing four “sci-fantasy, action shooter games” code-named “Destiny.”

This information was found in court documents relating to a case between involving Bungie's publisher, Activision. 

First thing I'll say is I'm glad (very glad) that MMO was not mentioned in the description of what Destiny is about.

The Destiny games are apparently set to be released beginning in the fall of 2013, followed by subsequent releases in fall of 2015, 2017 and 2019. So that's a well planned quadrilogy!

In addition, Bungie has agreed to create four downloadable expansions known as “Comet,” which will release in fall of 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020.

Which sounds like Bungie is betting the farm that their content will sell and sell well.

Almost very interestingly, the contractual arrangements between the parties allow Bungie to invest "no more than 5% of its staff to develop an action-shooter prototype dubbed Marathon while Bungie remains under contract with Activision."

This strongly suggests that the original Marathon is getting a remake. This should make some fan boys very happy! I also wonder if this is the project that Marcus Lehto has been working on lately?

You can read the whole contract here!

Stand and deliver your virtual goods and money!

I spied this story about the real world harassment of a young RuneScape player to make them drop their in game loot.

“The Dutch Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the theft conviction of a youth who stole another boy's possessions in the popular online fantasy game RuneScape. Judges ordered the offender to perform 144 hours of community service.

The suspect's lawyer had argued the amulet and mask "were neither tangible nor material and, unlike for example electricity, had no economic value." Yet the punk held a knife to the kid and made him drop his loot in-game.

These ‘virtual world’ economies are nothing new in the digital sense, people often trade money in the real world for items in the digital realm.

The story did make me think about Bungie’s new game, Destiny. Mooted to be set in world where players can come and go, it’s been hinted that it will have some kind of in game economy (this was through a job advertisment's call for persons with experience in virtual economies).

One can only image what will happen if Destiny is the success we all want it to be.  Given the stories that have abound such as kids shooting because they took their Halo away, or people travelling miles across the country to beat up someone who has offended them in game, there’s likely to be ample room for such shennaigans to result from taking part in Destiny.

While there’s no doubt Bungie is tuned into these problems of in game scammers and loot stealers and the like and they will make Destiny’s economy a robust one,  let’s hope their Federal Reserve is a strong one.

Destiny's secrets revealed. Kinda.

Misriah Solutions has given the Bungie O' Brave New World Vidoc the indepth go over with a fine tooth comb / CSI forensic examination and this has bourne the fruit of a few secrets about Destiny. Kinda.

For instance, the above picture apparently shows the word 'Destiny' actually used on a poster of some sort in the Bungie studio. There's also thoughts on the Grognok, telling Tshirts and stars.....

My God, it's full of stars

Stars made of Tigers! The new Bungie Vidoc gave a us a short glimpse into whatever it is they are making behind closed doors. We know a little more about 'Destiny'. It's codenamed Tiger and it has windmills. You do math as to what that means!

'One reason that Tiger is so intriguing to so many people in the studio is that it's reaching players in a way that we haven't before' This quote was made in the vidoc - other than mentioning the name, it's not really reaching players it its not in the wild.....
You can see the windmills in action right at the end of the Vidoc which you might want to watch simply for a nice trip done the Halo memory lane.



Any ways, if you like Tigers eating things....

Destiny Awaits

ncsuDuncan has put together a pretty sweet time line of all the tidbits that Bungie has been revealing to the world about their newest venture which we all think is called Destiny. Either way, it still awaits...


The image is from a find in the ODST Campaign which suggests Bungie had some concrete plans for a long time before any outsider got wind of Destiny.