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Activition Fulfils Destiny with $500 Million Sales On Day One

Activition Fulfils Destiny with $500 Million Sales On Day One

Destiny is the latest immersive online gaming experience from global games publisher Activision, which joined forces with games maker Bungie to create a blockbuster new franchise. 
Costing a reported US $535 million to produce, which is said to be more than what is being spent on the new Star Wars movie due in 2015, Destiny is expected to break the $1 billion sales figure within 7 days of the new game’s launch that happened earlier this week. 
We asked one of our designers who bought Destiny on launch night and who has been playing it since. 
While he loves the game, he wishes it had more content. He says that Levels 1 to 10 can be completed in one night, and that the game currently only has 25 levels, with two paid expansion packs due in the future, with the option of purchasing a “season pass” to continue getting more new Destiny content. 
His view is that the game has been overhyped with too much money spent on marketing, but acknowledges Activision has made all that money back and more following day one sales.
He only sees himself playing the game in a year’s time if a steady stream of new content emerges, and he wonders what kind of free content updates there will be in the future beyond all the ones that need to be paid for.  
So, what is Destiny, exactly? Well, it’s a multiplayer game that is set 700 into a dark future, with alien hordes threatening the thankfully technologically and militarily equipped human species with extinction. 

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The game is not just a first-person shooter, but is also an MMOG or massively multiplayer online game of the type that people play the text-only Zork game on PCs from 25+ years ago could only have dreamed about at the time. 

Throughout the beta period, Destiny has received positive reviews, so both Bungie and Activision must be breathing a sigh of relief that the entire production cost of the game was recouped in a single day, with plenty more profits still to come. 
Activision for its part is billing Destiny as the “most successful new video game franchise launch of all time” that is “on track to become Activision’s next billion dollar franchise”. 
Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard said: “Based on extraordinary audience demand, retail and first party orders worldwide have exceeded $500 million for Destiny. 
“This industry milestone marks another blockbuster success for our company and demonstrates our unique ability to create some of the most successful entertainment franchises in the world.  The success of Destiny, along with the recent introduction of Blizzard Entertainment’s Hearthstone, is further validation of our unique capabilities to create great entertainment franchises from the ground up.”  
 
To crank the hype machine up to unprecedented levels, Destiny launched at over 11,000 midnight openings around the world, with fans in over 178 countries sharing their fervour on YouTube and in social media.
 
Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing said: “Since the beginning, we’ve been confident that our investment and belief in Destiny would pay off. But not many people believed we’d be able to say it did so on day one.
“Destiny is officially the biggest new franchise launch in our industry’s history. It’s also the highest-selling day one digital console release in history. 
“We have more confidence than ever that Destiny will become one of the iconic franchises of this generation, and Activision’s next billion dollar brand. Most importantly, it’s just a great game which we can’t stop playing. A big thanks to our incredibly talented team and partners who helped make this happen, most importantly, our partners at Bungie.”