Activision Blizzard subsidiary Activision Publishing announced on Wednesday that Destiny has become the biggest new franchise launch in history, scoring more than $500 million on its very first day. The game launched at midnight on Tuesday in over 178 countries.
Destiny is Bungie's first game since it exited the Halo scene back in 2010 with the release of Halo: Reach. Bungie became a privately held studio in 2007 and signed a ten-year deal with Activision Blizzard in April 2010. The studio reported that it partnered with Activision because of the publisher's "global reach, multi-platform experience and marketing expertise."
According to the publisher, Destiny has broken a pre-purchase record for a new IP, raking in the most pre-orders in the industry's history. The game also saw a huge crowd on the consoles back when the beta launched in July.
In addition to the game, Activision Blizzard also revealed the Destiny Expansion Pass. This "pass" provides two expansions that will add new single-player missions, multiplayer arenas and cooperative activities. These packs will also introduce new armor, gear and weapons. The Destiny Expansion Pass will cost $34.99, but gamers can purchase each expansion separately for $19.99 when they launch.
"In Destiny, you are cast as a Guardian of the last city on Earth, able to explore the ancient ruins of our solar system in a social, living universe filled with other players. You will journey through environments spanning the red dunes of Mars to the lush jungles of Venus while creating your own legend as you and your friends venture out into the stars to reclaim the treasures and secrets lost after the collapse of humanity," the press release said.
Destiny is available now for the PlayStation 4, the PlayStation 3, the Xbox One and Xbox 360. On that note, we have to wonder what the pre-order and final purchase numbers would have looked like had Destiny also landed on Windows PC. Would the game have broken the 1 billion mark on its first day like Call of Duty: Ghosts did last year?
Will Destiny ever arrive on the PC? During E3 2014, Erik Hirshberg, the CEO of Activision Publishing, indicated that a PC version would make sense. However, Bungie senior writer Eric Osborne added that the team doesn't want to compromise the core experience given that an extra platform is more work for the team.
"We have a lot of people who play on PCs. We have a lot of appetite to build that experience," Osborne told Polygon. "We haven't announced it yet, but we're looking forward to talking more about that kind of stuff in the future."
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