Sony kicked off the Electronic Entertainment Expo Monday evening with an electrifying trailer that showcased "Destiny," a shared-world shooting game that Sony believes will define the next generation of games.
Set in a mythic science fiction universe, the multi-player game that banks on cooperation among players lets them choose from three classes of characters, Hunter, Titan or Warlock. Much like in other massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) such as "World of Warcraft" and "Guild Wars," these online personas develops and amass new gear and abilities the longer the players spend time in the mythical universe created by Bungie.
However, the main difference between "Destiny" and other MMORPG games is the specific way in which it connects to the Internet and the fact that it can be accessed using multiple devices. It is largely based on cloud storage and players can access their characters using any device, including the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One and Xbox 360. "Destiny" publisher Activision also hopes to include apps for tablets and smartphones in the future.
"PlayStation is above all else the best place to play, and we know what best means. It means connected, it means the highest visual quality. It means choice, and it means not being a lone gamer but a member of an extensive community," Sony chief executive Andrew House said at the introduction of "Destiny" to the E3 crowd in Los Angeles.
Bungie, the publisher behind the hugely successful "Halo" franchise which raised more than $3 billion in sales and helped put Microsoft's Xbox back into the picture, has high hopes for "Destiny," which cost Bungie up to $500 million to develop and promote. "Destiny" is Bungie's first big project after parting ways with Microsoft, and the game developer is expecting phenomenal sales for the game's first week. "Destiny" costs $60 apiece and its maker is expecting to see up to 10 million sales on launch.
"I don't think it's going to be hard to compete with the blockbusters," said Bungie president Harold Ryan. "The hardest thing for us is going to be keeping it running for consumers, on four platforms at once around the world, all on the same day."
Sony has packaged "Destiny" into a bundle that includes a new variant of PlayStation 4 in white, a white controller and a one-month membership to Sony's PlayStation Plus premium game service. The new PS4 variant will feature the same specs as the earlier PS4, which includes an 8-core AMD Jaguar/Kabini x86064 CPU, 8GB of unified RAM and 500GB of internal storage.
Players can pick up the "Destiny" bundle from any PlayStation store starting September 9, but Sony will be making the beta version of "Destiny" available exclusively to owners of PlayStation 4 on July 17. However, for those who are really excited about what "Destiny" will bring to the gaming table, Sony will be releasing the alpha version of the game on Thursday.
