Destiny investment "probably one of the biggest on new IP"
Activision has made a "sizable investment" in Destiny, according to the firm's publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg, who called it "probably one of the biggest investments in a new IP that’s ever been made in this industry."
Speaking with IGN, Hirshberg the potential for the Bungie title is "huge," and Activision was impressed with the developer's vision from the "earliest days".
“The potential is huge, it’s a sizable investment," he said. "It’s probably one of the biggest investments in a new IP that’s ever been made in this industry. We wouldn’t be making that investment if we didn’t believe in the potential.
"First, let’s start with the vision. From the earliest days of sitting down with Bungie and hearing their vision for the game, it was a truly impressive and ambitious idea. To me, the best thing about it is that it has elements that are tremendously familiar as well as elements that are tremendously innovative. I think that’s a great combo.
“There are certain mechanics in this industry that people want to be able to pick up and play and immediately be having fun with. At the end of the day, it’s a first-person shooter by Bungie. Everyone who loved Halo is going to love Destiny. At the same time, what you saw on the stage with Sony is a demo of the shared world shooter, this demonstration of how you’re in a PvE experience fighting artificial intelligence, but you have other live people popping up who you may know or you may not know. You can team up with them. It just makes it that much more kinetic and alive.
"I think it strikes a great balance between being something that people will immediately spark to and something that will have a lot of new discoveries as well.”
Hirshberg said the firm also isn't worried over the franchise possibly impacting Call of Duty, one because they arr "very different games," which can "peacefully coexist with one another."
"The first-person shooter genre has shown tremendous staying power, as well as tremendous capacity in terms of the appetite people have for it," he said. "I think what we’ve seen is that if there are good games in this genre, people will show up to play them. But if you have to compete, it’s nice to compete with yourself.”
Destiny will launch on PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One in 2014.