Bungie: Destiny on PC Still a Possibility

By Kevin Parrish
published

In an interview posted on Monday, Bungie design lead Lars Bakken made it clear that the studio hasn't forgotten about the PC gamers while developing Destiny. In fact, he indicated that it was definitely possible to launch a PC version, just not right now.

The former one-console developer Bungie, which was responsible for the Halo series on the Xbox consoles, has enough on its plate in developing its new game Destiny for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. This is Bungie's first multi-platform game, and its first time developing for the PlayStation 3.

"The console SKUs are really important for us and that's what we're focusing on," Bakken said. "We're doing it all internally ourselves. That's a huge endeavor. That's not something we've ever done before. So when I'm playtesting and I'm trying to play PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PS3, that's a lot of work. Adding another thing on there is just crazy. It's crazy to think of right now."

Bungie COO Pete Parsons indicated that four platforms on day one is a big achievement considering the studio's long one-console history. Still, they're also hardcore gamers, playing games on other form factors like smartphones and tablets, as well as PCs.

"There are 500 people up there. So we care a lot about the PC," he said in the interview. "But this is a huge and ambitious project for us, and just getting it on one console would be a momentous challenge. Getting it on four on the same day is something we've never even tried before. We wanted to get it right, and we didn't want to add in tons more risk."

Parsons added that creating a PC version would not be easy because Destiny connects to a virtual world that extends to multiple platforms. Getting the PC version to play nice with the others "requires lots of intensive thought," for which they have very little time at the moment.

"Just building up the game and putting it across generations of platforms, and working on platforms we've never worked on before with the PlayStation 3, these are very big challenges. I'm thankful we have the engineering team we do," he said.

Earlier in the interview, Bakken said that even though the process of getting Destiny to the PC would be very complicated, "that doesn't mean it can't happen in the future." Towards the end of the interview, Parsons hinted to the PC version by saying "I look forward to our future conversations around PC."

Cross your fingers.

Kevin Parrish
Topics
Gaming
Software
28 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Shankovich
    I understand porting games is not a simple task, but considering the PS4 and XB1 have x86 CPU's and Radeon GPU's, is it really as difficult as it used to be? I mean XB1 pretty much runs windows 8.
    Reply
  • Ad Hoc
    Destiny connects to a virtual world that extends to multiple platforms. Getting the PC version to play nice with the others "requires lots of intensive thought,

    I don't understand this. Last I heard, Destiny wasn't cross-platform.
    Reply
  • Blazer1985
    Since acquired by microsoft, Bungie has almost always been used to "promote" the new os, I wouldn't be too surprised to see a win 8 only title.
    Reply
  • DelightfulDucklings
    Since acquired by Microsoft, Bungie has almost always been used to "promote" the new os, I wouldn't be too surprised to see a win 8 only title.
    Bungie doesn't have any obligations with Microsoft any more AFAIK so they don't have any reason to make it exclusive to a certain OS
    Reply
  • Blazer1985
    True, Microsoft only owns the Halo series now, thanks for the info I really missed that ^_^
    Reply
  • oxiide
    Since acquired by microsoft, Bungie has almost always been used to "promote" the new os, I wouldn't be too surprised to see a win 8 only title.
    If its coming to Playstation, all such bets are already off.

    I do wish they'd either announce the PC version, or shut up about it until they do. This "we haven't forgotten" nonsense is just hype-building. From a marketing/PR standpoint, the only way a statement like this makes any sense is if they already plan to release it on PC. If they genuinely didn't know, they would avoid discussing it.
    Reply
  • hasten
    Destiny connects to a virtual world that extends to multiple platforms. Getting the PC version to play nice with the others "requires lots of intensive thought,

    MS tried multi-platform and it was a horrible failure due to the kb/m vs. controller unbalance. I imagine that is the problem being referenced.
    Reply
  • MaXimus421
    Let the console's keep it. Game play video looked rather... boring. Was hyped about this title for a while and WAS hoping for a PC version, but this game looks disappointing. Borderlands meets Halo basically.

    It's no longer on my radar. Can't believe Bungie's lack of effort on this one. Oh well.
    Reply
  • pocketdrummer
    "Parsons added that creating a PC version would not be easy because Destiny connects to a virtual world that extends to multiple platforms."

    This killed any hope I had right there. They won't bring it to the PC. But even if they did, it would be outsourced and shitty.
    Reply
  • KelvinTy
    If it's gonna be another "straight" port with little to no pc optimization? Don't bother. If it has some sense of optimization or some love from the devs? Yea, go ahead, everybody would love it.
    Reply