Destiny: Bungie ARG hints at Monday reveal

Bungie has opened some sort of AR game, with a countdown suggesting we may hear about Destiny sooner rather than later.

The AR Game, accessible from a sub-domain of Bungie's website, which shows the word "Monday" and a countdown with seven numbers. Today is day 0, according to the URL, and allowing for timezones, it suggests we'll see something on February 18, US time.

Today's "puzzle" has players splitting diamonds to form two columns, which reveals two images and the instructions: "Pattern Active. Array Element Online. Coordinate. Combine. Clarify. [Note: (x, y) visibility limited. (u, v) analysis might prove useful.] Frequency gaps detected. Additional global observatories required."

The words suggest more people need to access the site before it will yield answers, but you might also have luck combining the two images somehow; one is called "output" in the filename and the other one, labelled "active baselines", is called "geomask".

Clicking the text about analysis proving useful leads to a page with the following text:

"Our sky is filled with unseen signals. Radio-frequency emissions pulse and flit and dance all around us. Yet even a singing patch of sky can be observed, and transformed into a range of frequencies.

Can you hear it? No, not yet. It has not yet arrived. But together we can receive its call.

Imagine combining the observations of thousands across the globe on an object meandering through the heavens. The resulting array would be quite large. Quite powerful. This is your task.

Alone it will not be enough. Coordination and timing is needed. Observations must be made simultaneously.

Your window will be small. Five minutes at most. But windows may be reopened. And the distance between observer pairs will be key.

There will always be limitations in clarity, so the results must be archived for study. Highly technical observers may be required. Detailed frequency analysis is recommended.

Everything that belongs to us will be ours, but only if we create the capacity to receive it."

Any ideas, or shall we just sit pretty till Monday? Destiny is also scheduled for some sort of reveal at GDC in March. It is believed to be a heavily-social science fiction affair; Bungie has shown a classy sense of humour about pre-reveal leaks.

If Destiny is coming to next-generation consoles, the reveal would pre-empt Sony's PlayStation Meeting, where the PlayStation 4 is expected to debut. Earlier reports suggested the first Destiny game is expected to release this year on "Xbox consoles" - either the Xbox 360, its successor, or both - but would later expand to PC and PlayStation consoles. The series was also expected to spawn three further core releases on next-generation hardware, plus four expansion packs, alternating yearly. These details came from early contracts and may have changed in the interim.

Thanks, IGN.